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Gustavus Adolpln 



Frontispiece. 



THE 



Thirty Years' War. 



v 

CHARLES K. TRUE, D. D. 



AUTHOR OF " LIFE AND TIMES OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH, ' " ELEMENTS 
OF LOGIC," ETC. 




CINCINNATI: 
HITCHCOCK AND WALDEN. 

NEW YORK: NELSON & PHILLIPS. 
1879. 



Copyright by 

HITCHCOCK & WALDEN, 

1878. 



IlS* 



PREFACE 



HE tangled story of this long, terrible, 
and eventful war I have endeavored so 
to draw out as will make it easily under- 
stood by even youthful readers. 

My authorities, in addition to general his- 
tories and encyclopaedias, are, Schiller's and 
Gardiner's histories of the Thirty Years' War, 
and Abelous' Gustavus Adolphus, translated 
bv Mrs. C. A. Lacroix. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Beginning of the Protestant Reformation — John 
de Wickliffe — John Huss and Jerome of Prague — Martin 
Luther — Religious Civil War — Peace of Augsburg — 
Charles V, Page II 

CHAPTER II. 

Rumblings of the Coming Storm — The Catholic 
Elector of Cologne marries Agnes of Mansfield, and be- 
comes a Calvinist — He is dispossessed — Troubles in Stras- 
burg and Donauworth — Dispute about the Succession of 
Cleves — Henry IV, of France, 19 

CHAPTER III. 

Rudolph grants a Charter to Bohemia — Matthias, his 
Successor, violates it, is deposed, and Ferdinand is ac- 
knowledged by the Diet — The Protestants object, and 
appeal in vain to Matthias — Revolution follows — Thirty 
Years' War begun — Count Thurn raises an Army — Count 
Mansfield — Death of Matthias — Accession of Ferdinand 
to the Dukedom of Austria — Thurn invades Austria, 24 
% 5 



6 Contents. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Ferdinand elected Emperor — Deposed from the King- 
dom of Bohemia — Frederick, Elector of the Palatinate, is 
chosen King— He besieges Vienna — Maximilian, Elector 
of Bavaria, engages to aid Ferdinand II — John George, 
Elector of Saxony, likewise — Catholic Union and Protestant 
League arm for the Conflict — France interposes — Battle 
of Prague — Flight of Frederick — Ferdinand tears up the 
Royal Charter, Page 36 

CHAPTER V. 

Frederick put to the Ban — Mansfield, the Margrave 
of Baden, and Frederick of Brunswick for him — Tilly 
defeats the Margrave of Wimpfen — Christian is defeated — 
Frederick flees to the Hague — Diet of Ratisbon — Fred- 
erick deposed, and his Electorate given to Maximilian for 
his Life-time, 46 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Lower Saxon Circle arms — Christian of Bruns- 
wick defeated by Tilly — Northern Germany arms — Appeal 
to Protestant Nations — England enlists France — Mansfield's 
Expedition — Christian IV, of Denmark, intervenes — Wal- 
lenstein offers the Emperor an Army — Defeats Mansfield — 
Mansfield's Death — Bethlen Gabor — Battle of Lutter, and 
Defeat of King of Denmark, 54 

CHAPTER VII. 

Wallenstein's Enlightened Views — Opposed by the 
Electors — Conquers Mecklenburg — Stralsund is besieged 



Contents. 7 

in vain — Gliickstadt likewise — Christian IV makes Peace 
at Lubeck — Wallenstein rewarded with Mecklenburg — 
Edict of Restitution — Wallenstein dismissed, . . Page 67 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Sketch of Gustavus Adolphus — Undertakes the Prot- 
estant Cause in Germany — Takes Riiger — Drives the 
Imperialists into Brandenburg — Tilly at Frankfort — He 
hastens to meet Gustavus — Siege of Magdeburg — Gustavus 
takes Frankfort, 80 

CHAPTER IX. 

Elector of Brandenburg abandons his Neutrality — 
Saxony arms — Tilly takes Leipsic — Victory of Gustavus 
over Tilly — Gustavus moves toward the Rhine — Takes 
Various Towns — Duke of Lorraine defeated — Other Towns 
taken — Attempts to assassinate Gustavus — Capture of 
Mayence — Horn pursued by Tilly — Tilly driven to Ba- 
varia by the Swedes, 101 

CHAPTER X. 

Battle of Lech— Defeat and Death of Tilly— Deliver- 
ance of Augsburg — Siege of Ingolstadt — Gustavus's Horse 
killed under him — Takes Munich — John George invades 
Bohemia — Prague capitulates — The Emperor now recalls 
Wallenstein on his own Terms, . 122 

CHAPTER XI. 

Wallenstein takes Prague — Gustavus protects Nurem- 
berg — Wallenstein declines Battle — Gustavus attacks his 



8 Contents. 

Intrenchments in vain — He quits the Famished Region — 
Wallenstein quits afterwards — Gustavus pursues him — 
Meets his Queen at Erfurt— Battle of Liitzen — His Death — 
Victory of his Troops, Page 135 

CHAPTER XII. 

Conference of the Allies — Oxenstiern is appointed 
Chief of the Armies — Exploits of the Army — Wallen- 
stein's Ambiguous Conduct — Invites a Conference with 
the Swedish Generals — Captures Thurn with his Whole 
Corps — Lets him go — He is declared a Traitor by Fer- 
dinand II — His Officers and their Men declare against 
him — He marches to Eger to join the Swedes — His 
Assassination, 154 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Emperor's Son made Generalissimo — Battle of Nord- 

lillgeil A11iar|CP nf Swedes with FinnP-g_~TVfprtion of 

Saxony — Treaty of Prague — France proclaims War — Span- 
ish Army invades France — The Nation under Richelieu 
rises and expels It — Victories of Bauner over the Sax- 
ons — Duke Bernard's Victories and Death, .... 176 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Ferdinand II dies — Succeeded by Ferdinand III — His 
Troops relieve Leipsic — Bauner's Masterly Retreat — In- 
vades Bohemia — Retreats — Threatens Ratisbon and alarms 
the Diet there — His Death — Torstenson succeeds to the 
Command — Changes the Theater of War to Silesia and 
Moravia — Leopold and Piccolomini repel him — Wrangel 



Contents. 9 

joins him, and they drive the Enemy before them — 
Second Battle of Leipsic and Defeat of the Imperial- 
ists, Page 190 

CHAPTER XV. 

Richelieu's Death — Mazarin succeeds him as Min- 
ister of Louis XIV — The French under Guibriant cross 
the Rhine — He is mortally wounded — His Army after- 
wards is destroyed at Duttlingen — Torstenson is ordered 
to make War on Denmark — The King sues for Peace — 
Torstenson again in Bohemia — The Battle of Jankowitz — 
Ferdinand HI defeated with Loss of his Army — Tors- 
tenson follows him to Vienna — Resigns and is succeeded 
by Wrangel, 198 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Part of France in the Close of the War — De- 
fense of Rocroy against the Spaniards, by the Duke of 
Enghien — Battles with Bavarians — Wrangel and Turenne 
unite — The Last Campaign — Peace of Westphalia — Its 
Results, 204 



Illustrations. 



Gustavus Adolphus, . . . Frontispiece. 

Assassination of Wallenstein, 175. 



THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 



diopter' I. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION— JOHN 
DE WICKLIFFE— JOHN HUSS— MARTIN LUTHER— RELIG- 
IOUS CIVIL WAR — PEACE OF AUGSBURG — CHARLES V. 

' I ^HE Protestant Reformation began in a very 
-*• effectual manner with John de Wickliffe, 
often styled the Morning Star of the Reformation. 
He was born A. D. 1324, in the parish of Wick- 
liffe, Yorkshire, England, and became a student 
and afterwards professor in the University of Ox- 
ford. So early as 1356 he assailed the authority 
of the Pope in a treatise entitled, "The Last Age 
of the Church." During the life of Edward III he 
had the support of the monarch against persecu- 
tion, as well as the popular favor; but in the next 



12 The Thirty Years' War. 

reign he was condemned for heresy, and expelled 
from the university. He retired to his rectory at 
Lutterworth, and devoted himself to the transla- 
tion into English of the Holy Scriptures, the first 
ever made; of which the New Testament portion 
only has been printed. He died of a paralytic 
stroke A. D. 1384. He held that the Pope 
was not the head of the Church, and objected to 
the authority of councils. He rejected the Ro- 
man doctrines of confession, transubstantiation, 
and the celibacy of the clergy. His influence 
was felt throughout Christendom. The Council of 
Constance, which condemned his disciple John 
Huss, condemned the writings of Wickliffe, and 
ordered his bones to be taken up and burned. 
This was accomplished in A. D. T425. 

The second great movement for Reformation 
was by John Huss, of Bohemia. He was born 
at Hussinatz, in 1373, and was educated at the 
University of Prague, and became Professor of 
Theology and Philosophy. As preacher in the 
Bethlehem Chapel he acquired great popularity. 
Having read the writings of Wickliffe, and being 



The Thirty Years' War. 13 

familiar with the original Scriptures, he perceived 
the corruptions of the Church, and assailed them 
with the greatest intrepidity, especially papal indul- 
gences, masses for the dead, image worship, mo- 
nastic life, auricular confession, simony, various 
fasts, and withholding the cup from the laity. 
He was summoned by the Council of Constance 
to appear before them and answer the charge of 
heresy. The Emperor Sigismund gave to him a 
safe conduct, which was shamefully violated by 
his being thrown into prison soon after his arrival. 
Seven months afterwards, June 7th, he was called 
by the council to defend himself in the presence 
of the emperor. He was condemned to be burnt, 
and his ashes were thrown into the Rhine July 
6, 141 5. On his way to the place of execution 
he passed the spot where his writings had been 
burnt, and he smiled as he looked upon their 
charred remains. At the stake he was offered 
pardon and deliverance from death if he would 
recant; but he made no sign of submission, and 
preferred the martyr's crown. 

His colleague, Jerome of Prague, was in prison 



14 The Thirty Years' War. 

at Constance when the sad news of the mar- 
tyrdom of Huss was brought to him. There 
he remained in darkness until the nth of Sep- 
tember, when, worn out by his sufferings, he con- 
sented to make some recantation. But it availed 
nothing; he was not set at liberty; and being 
called to an audience on the 26th of May, he 
formally and solemnly retracted his recantation. 
He was condemned to be burnt, and on the 30th 
of May he marched to the pile singing hymns 
and reciting the Apostles' creed. His ashes were 
thrown into the Rhine. This was a man of great 
learning and surpassing eloquence. 

The sympathy with the doctrines of Huss and 
his designs was so general in Bohemia, that a 
religious war was kindled by his death. The sac- 
ramental cup, which was denied the laity, was 
made the symbol of insurrection. John Ziska, 
blind in one eye, but a genius in military art, and 
a favorite with the masses, put himself at their 
head, and bore down all the armies brought 
against him. 

The indignation of the people at the action of 



The Thirty Years' War. 15 

the Council of Constance was inflamed to the 
utmost by the seduction by a monk of his sister, 
a nun. A priest belonging to the party of the 
Hussites was hit by a stone as he marched in a 
procession. A riot was the consequence. The 
town hall was attacked, and thirteen of the city 
councilmen thrown out of the window. The aged 
king of Bohemia, Wenceslaus, was so alarmed 
that he died of a paralytic stroke. The Emperor 
Sigismund, his brother, was the legal successor to 
the crown of Bohemia, and going on his way 
of persecuting the reformers, the Hussites swore 
never to acknowledge him as sovereign. A for- 
tified town was built on Mount Tabor, under the 
direction of Ziska, who employed for the first 
time bulwarks of wagons to protect his infantry 
from the attacks of cavalry. He defended Prague 
against the approaches of Sigismund by intrench- 
ments on the hill of Wittkow, now called Zis- 
ka's Hill, where, with only four thousand he 
repelled the assaults of thirty thousand men. 
While at the siege of the castle of Raby he was 
made totally blind by an arrow striking his only 



16 The Thirty Years' War. 

remaining eye; but he contrived to manage his 
army by reports brought to him as he moved over 
the field in a car. After having won thirteen 
pitched battles and brought the emperor to sue 
for peace by offering him the government of Bo- 
hemia, he was the victim of a pestilence which in- 
vaded his camp at the siege of Preibislaw, October 
12. 1424. The war was continued under other 
leaders; the result was that the Catholic party 
gained the ascendancy at first, but the reformed 
doctrines took such hold on the mass of the 
people that at the breaking out of the thirty years' 
war, two centuries later, three-fourths of the inhab- 
itants were Protestants. 

But the time was not come for the success of 
Protestantism ; another century must pass before 
the next great step will be taken. Meanwhile 
the revival of the study of Greek classics, the 
art of printing, the new universities, the growing 
numbers of learned men, and the better educa- 
tion of the masses, prepared the way for Martin 
Luther. 

The story of Luther need not here be re- 



-. 



The Thirty Years' War. 17 

counted. Suffice it that in 1525 John, Elector of 
Saxony, Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, and Albert, 
Duke of Prussia, declared for the Reformation. 
Sweden, under Gustavus Vasa, received it in 1527, 
and soon after Denmark, Lower Saxony, the north 
of Westphalia, Hamburg, and Lubeck. For the 
moment all Germany seemed to be going in the 
same direction. The Catholic princes, Ferdinand, 
Archduke of Austria, Duke Louis of Bavaria, 
and others, together with several archbishops and 
bishops of Southern Germany met and concluded 
a treaty at Ratisbon for the defense of Popery. 
The result was a civil war, in which the Protest- 
ant princes finally had the advantage. A conven- 
tion for the settlement of difficulties was held at 
Passau in 1552, by which it was agreed that a Diet 
or general assembly should be held at Augsburg 
to establish the terms of a general peace. This 
Diet was held in 1555, and a treaty of peace was 
signed, by which the Protestant estates were not 
only to be tolerated, but to retain the possession 
of the confiscated ecclesiastical property. The 
Emperor Charles V, disappointed in his measures 



S 



1 8 The Thirty Years' War. 

to compel union in religious matters, and worn 
out with the cares of empire and with physical 
disorders, abdicated all his imperial and royal 
governments and retired to a monastery in Spain. 



The Thirty Years' War. 19 



dlikptef II. 



RUMBLINGS OF THE COMING STORM — THE CATHOLIC 
ELECTOR GEBHARD, OF COLOGNE, MARRIES THE 
COUNTESS AGNES, OF MANSFIELD, AND BECOMES A 
CALVINIST — HE IS DISPOSSESSED — TROUBLES IN STRAS- 
BURG AND DANAUWERTH — DISPUTE ABOUT THE SUC- 
CESSION OF CLEVES — HENRY IV, OF FRANCE. 

*nT"*HE religious peace was observed by the 
-*■ emperors and potentates of Germany until 
the accession of Rudolph II, a weak, bigoted 
prince, who gave more attention to painting and 
astronomy than to the duties of his government, 
and allowed his religious advisers to dictate op- 
pressive measures against the new religion. The 
ecclesiastical states were, by a reserve clause, not 
included in the peace stipulations, and an elector 
changing his religion would forfeit all the tempo- 
ralities of his bishopric. A romantic affair led to 
great troubles. The Elector of Cologne, Geb- 
hard, fell in love with Agnes, the young and 



20 The Thirty Years' War. 

beautiful Countess of Mansfield and Canoness of 
Gerresheim. He could not marry her while he 
remained a prelate of the Roman Catholic Church; 
consequently, he renounced the Catholic religion, 
and embraced Calvinism. But he refused to 
relinquish his principality, and was sustained by 
the Protestants, who had always objected to the 
reserve clause. The emperor at once interposed, 
and the ban of the Pope was pronounced against 
the elector, depriving him of all his dignities. 
This excited the indignation of the Protestant 
princes, and especially of Henry of Navarre, 
afterwards Henry IV of France. A civil war 
arose in the electorate, and ended in the exclusion 
of Gebhard from his dominions. He might have 
succeeded better had it not been for the sad want 
of union between the Lutheran and Calvinist sec- 
tions of the reformed Church, the Lutheran 
princes refusing to come to his aid. 

A dispute took place in Strasburg respecting 
the election ef a bishop, which brought on a local 
war, and ended in the triumph of the Catholics. 

In 1607 the free city of Danauwerth, in Suabia, 



The Thirty Years' War. 21 

was made the scene of a riot which cost the city 
its liberties. The inhabitants were mostly Prot- 
estants, and felt themselves insulted by a fanatical 
abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Cross lead- 
ing a procession through the city, with flying 
banners and the Roman cross. A year after- 
wards a similar attempt was suppressed by the 
populace, who trampled the banners under foot 
and drove the Papists to their homes with blows 
and abusive outcries. The emperor placed the 
city under the ban ; and when the Duke of Bava- 
ria marched an army to enforce it the city sub- 
mitted without resistance, and was converted into 
a municipality of Bavaria. 

These and similar aggressions led to the for- 
mation, under the guidance of Christian, Prince 
of Anhalt, of a Protestant union for the protec- 
tion of their rights. Soon after, a Catholic league 
was formed, under Maximilian of Bavaria, to an- 
tagonize the Protestant union. 

In 1609 an event happened which threatened 
to involve all Europe in war. The Duke of 
Cleves died, and the succession was disputed by 



22 The Thirty Years' War. 

no less than eight princes, chief of whom were the 
Elector of Brandenburg and the son of the Duke 
of Neuburg. The emperor claimed the right of 
umpire, and prepared to occupy the duchy. In 
this emergency the disputants, who were both 
Protestants, agreed to a joint government of the 
territory. The emperor sent his relative, the 
Archduke Leopold, Bishop of Passau and Stras- 
burg, to seize the city of Juliers, which he effected 
by stratagem ; but all the rest of the country sub- 
mitted to the Protestant princes. The real ques- 
tion here was whether the Protestant or the 
Catholic party was to be strengthened by the ac- 
cession of this duchy. Against Austria, on one 
side, were arrayed England, Holland, and France. 
Henry of Navarre was now Henry IV of 
France. He had always felt that the House of 
Austria, by its affinity with Spain, was likely some 
day to combine with that ambitious rival against 
the peace and safety of France; and he devoted 
himself, with the aid of his great minister, Sully, 
to extensive preparations for a war which should 
humble Austria and cripple her power. In con- 



The Thirty Years' War. 23 

cert with Maurice, Stadtholder of the Dutch 
Republic, he was on the eve of commencing hos- 
tilities by making the Duchy of Cleves the battle- 
ground, when the dagger of an assassin extin- 
guished his life and put an end to his vast 
projects. The coming of France into the final 
scenes of the Thirty Years' War, as we shall see, 
gave the victory to the Protestants, and fixed for 
a long period the political geography of Europe. 
The two rival claimants could not come to a 
settlement between themselves. At length the 
young Prince of Neuburg thought of the expe- 
dient of marriage with the daughter of the Elector 
of Brandenburg, and proposed it to him; whereat 
he was so incensed that he boxed the young 
man's ears. The result was that Neuburg abjured 
Protestantism, and called on the Catholic league 
to take his part in the quarrel. It is a wonder 
that affair did not set all Europe in a blaze of 
war. But the time was not yet; these events 
were the clouds and thunder on the horizon beto- 
kening the coming tempest. 



24 The Thirty Years' War. 



Copter- III. 

RUDOLPH GRANTS A ROYAL CHARTER TO BOHEMIA — MAT- 
THIAS, ELECTED HIS SUCCESSOR, VIOLATES IT, AND IS 
DEPOSED, AND FERDINAND IS ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE 
DIET AS THE LEGITIMATE HEIR TO THE CROWN — THE 
PROTESTANTS OBJECT, AND APPEAL TO MATTHIAS, WHO 
SANCTIONS THE WHOLE THING — THE PROTESTANT 
ESTATES ASSEMBLE AT PRAGUE AND MARCH TO THE 
PALACE, AND THROW THE OBNOXIOUS COMMISSIONERS 
OF THE EMPEROR OUT OF THE WINDOW, AND INAU- 
GURATE A REVOLUTION — THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 
BEGUN — REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT ORGANIZED — 
COUNT THURN RAISES AN ARMY — THE EMPEROR PRE- 
PARES FOR WAR — BOHEMIA IS INVADED — COUNT MANS- 
FIELD ARRIVES FROM THE PROTESTANT LEAGUE WITH 
FOUR THOUSAND MEN — THE DEATH OF MATTHIAS AND 
ACCESSION OF FERDINAND TO THE DUKEDOM OF AUS- 
TRIA — THURN INVADES AUSTRIA AND BESIEGES VIENNA. 

F) OHEMIA bad become a Protestant kingdom, 
•D but was under the government of the Cath- 
olic emperor, Rudolph II, as king. In 1609 the 
nobles and princes of the kingdom extorted from 
him a royal charter, granting freedom of con- 
science to every citizen; but authority to build 



The Thirty Years' War. 25 

churches and hold public worship belonged to 
the Estates of the kingdom, which was made up 
of about fourteen hundred gentry and representa- 
tives of forty-two towns. On the royal domains, 
however, worship was to be free. Rudolph was 
never satisfied with this state of affairs, and strove 
to break the charter. The result was that in 161 1 
he was dethroned by the Estates, and his brother 
Matthias was made king. The next year he died, 
and was succeeded by Matthias as emperor. 

Very soon Matthias, as King of Bohemia, be- 
gan to show his opposition to the royal charter. 
The Protestants of Braunau and of Klostergrab 
were forbidden by the Catholic ecclesiastic land- 
owners to make use for worship of the churches 
they had built; and it was contended that this 
interdict was contrary to the charter, inasmuch as 
these lands were in the royal domain, where wor- 
ship was free. But Matthias decided against the 
Protestants, and one of the churches was pulled 
down and the other was closed up. In 1607 the 
Bohemian Diet was summoned to meet, and Fer- 
dinand of Styria was declared king by hereditary 



26 The Thirty Years' War. 

right. It was produced in argument that in years 
past the Estates had declared the throne to be 
hereditary, and not elective, and therefore the 
acceptance of the election of Matthias was not to 
be tolerated as a revolutionary measure. They 
submitted, if they were not convinced, and so 
deposed Matthias by acknowledging Ferdinand to 
be the hereditary king. 

Ferdinand was a rigid Catholic, and had rooted 
out the new religion in his principality of Styria. 
Could he, therefore, make oath to observe and 
maintain the royal charter? The Jesuits explained 
to him that, though it was a sin to grant such a 
charter, it was now the law of the land, and it 
would not be wrong to accept it. He accordingly 
took the oath, and was crowned King of Bohe- 
mia. By this act the Estates had settled the suc- 
cession to the crown on the House of Austria. 

But the nation was disgusted with this proced- 
ure. A summons was issued to the representa- 
tives of the Protestant Estates to meet, to consider 
the emergency. They met, and prepared a peti- 
tion to Matthias. But, strange to say, some time 



The Thirty Years' War. 27 

before they met word was sent from Matthias 
sanctioning all that had taken place, and declar- 
ing the assembly illegal. 

This answer, it was believed, was instigated 
by Slawata and Martinetz, imperial delegates, 
who had become odious by their persecution of 
Protestants. . Led by Count Thurn, armed mem- 
bers of the assembly proceeded to the royal 
palace, and demanded of the four commissioners 
there in session who had been instrumental in 
procuring the obnoxious imperial message. Steen- 
berg and Lokowitz were taken by the arm and 
put out of the room; and Martinetz and Slawata 
were dragged to the window and pushed into the 
castle trench, a height of seventy feet. Their 
secretary, Fabricius, was sent after them. Mar- 
tinetz, seeing his doom, begged for a confessor. 
" Commend thy soul to God. Shall we allow the 
Jesuit scoundrels to come here?" was the answer. 
•'Jesus! Mary!" cried he, as he made the fearful 
plunge. "Let us see," said one of the revolu- 
tionists, "whether his Mary will help him." 
Strange to say, he was not killed by the fall. He 



28 The Thirty Years' War. 

lighted upon an immense dung-heap, and his fall 
was broken. Looking out of the window, and 
seeing him rise and walk off, one of the party 
exclaimed, "Behold, his Mary has helped him!" 
The other two followed him, and with the same 
astonishing escape from death. 

"There are moments," says Gardiner, "when 
the character of a nation or party stands revealed 
as by a lightning flash, and this was one of them. 
It is not in such a way as this that successful 
revolutions are begun." 

The leader in this movement was Henry Mat- 
thias, Count Thurn. He was concerned in obtain- 
ing from the emperor the royal charter, and was 
enthusiastically devoted to the Protestant cause. 
He was not a native of Bohemia, but had estates 
in the kingdom, and had achieved renown and 
popular favor in the war against the Turks. He 
was at this time deeply incensed against the im- 
perial court for depriving him of the office of 
Constable of the Castle and Custodian of the 
Bohemian Crown and the National Charter, and 
revenge, as well as devotion to his adopted coun- 



The Thirty Years' War. 29 

try, moved him to engage in these revolutionary 
projects. 

The revolution was formally organized by the 
appointment of thirty directors. These took pos- 
session of all the offices of state and the imperial 
revenues. The royal army and officers of civil 
government were taken into their service. The 
Jesuits, who were hated as the insidious enemies 
of the kingdom, were banished; and all was done 
on the pretense of maintaining the royal authority 
and the laws of the realm. Appeals for sympa- 
thy were made to the neighboring Protestant 
princes. John George, Elector of Saxony, hesi- 
tated to sanction rebellion, and remarked that his 
office would be to "help to put out the fire." 
But the Elector Palatine, Frederick V, son-in- 
law of James I of England, expressed a warm 
sympathy with the patriots, and a readiness to 
furnish them aid when the proper time should 
arrive. 

Where now was Ferdinand, who had been 
crowned King of Bohemia? He was in Vienna, 
at the court of the emperor, and exhorted him 



30 The Thirty Years' War. 

instantly to employ the severest measures to put 
down the rebellion, and to root out the reformed 
religion, the cause of it. "Disobedience, lawless- 
ness, and insurrection," he pleaded, went always 
hand in hand with Protestantism. Every privi- 
lege which had been conceded to the Estates by 
himself and his predecessor had had no other 
effect than to raise their demands. All the meas- 
ures of the heretics were aimed against the im- 
perial authority. Step by step had they advanced 
from defiance to defiance, up to this last aggres- 
sion. In a short time they would assail all that 
remained to be assailed in the person of the 
emperor. In arms alone was there any safety 
against such an enemy; peace and subordination 
could only be established upon the ruins of their 
dangerous privileges; security for the Catholic 
belief was to be found in the total destruction of 
this sect. Uncertain, it was true, might be the 
event of the war, but inevitable was the ruin if it 
were permitted. The confiscation of the lands 
of the rebels would richly indemnify them for its 
expenses, while the terror of punishment would 



The Thirty Years' War. 31 

teach the other stales the wisdom of a prompt 
obedience in future. 

The emperor did not fully reciprocate these 
sentiments; but he was convinced that war could 
not be avoided. He applied to Spain for aid, 
and was promised gold and detachments of the 
Spanish forces in Italy and Belgium. On the 
muster of the army Count Bacquoi, a Nether- 
lander, was made general -in -chief, and Count 
Dampierre was associated with him. The em- 
peror now issued a manifesto to the Bohemians, 
in a conciliatory spirit, in which he declared 
"that he held sacred the Letter of Majesty; that 
he had not formed any resolutions inimical to 
their religion or privileges; and that his present 
preparations were forced upon him by their own. 
As soon as the nation laid down their arms, he 
also would disband his army." But the Protest- 
ants did not believe in his pacific intentions, as 
they regarded him as the instrument of the big- 
oted and cruel Ferdinand, with whom they coulcl 
have no friendly relations. 

The war began on the side of the Bohemians. 



32 The Thirty Years' War. 

Count Thurn marched an army to capture Bud- 
weis and Krumman, two towns in which the 
Catholics held dominion. Krumman surrendered 
without resistance, but Budweis refusing to sur- 
render, was besieged. 

The imperial army now advanced in two divis- 
ions, under Bucquoi and Dampierre, and invaded 
the Bohemian territories with the design of laying 
siege to Prague. Every-where the people rose up 
against them, and contested their march at every 
pass and every defile where a stand could be 
made. Reports came in from Merovia and from 
the Protestant Union that aid was coming to them. 
Four thousand men from the army of the Duke 
of Savoy were offered to the Union, and Count 
Peter Ernest of Mansfield was placed at the head. 
He had repudiated the Catholic faith in which he 
was reared, and entered with enthusiasm into the 
cause of the Protestants. He soon appeared on 
the scene of action and made his first attack upon 
the Catholic town of Pilsen. After a short siege 
it surrendered, and was occupied by his troops. 
This gave him a strong foothold in the country. 



The Thirty Years' War. 33 

All the time Count Thurn was facing the army of 
Bucquoi, and resisting his progress. Silesia soon 
espoused the cause of the revolutionists, and sent 
an auxiliary army into the field. Before these 
united forces Bucquoi was compelled to retrace 
his steps and return to the fortified town of Bud- 
weis. Winter now set in, and the contending 
armies took up Winter quarters. 

On the 20th of March, 1619, the aged Emperor 
Matthias died. The next legitimate heir to the 
crown of Austria was Ferdinand, the rejected 
King of Bohemia. He directly made overtures 
of reconciliation to the directors, and promised to 
respect the Royal Charter. But they had no 
faith in his Jesuitical pledges, and rejected his 
proposals with scorn. 

With the opening of Spring the campaign 
commenced anew. While Mansfield held Bucquoi 
in check Count Thurn marched into Merovia, 
where the Protestant population hailed him with 
rapture. Brun is taken, and all the rest of the 
country came over to him. He next invaded 
Austria, and meeting no opposition from the 



34 The Thirty Years' War. 

people, the greater part of whom, in Upper and 
Lower Austria, were largely Protestant, and had 
refused allegiance to Ferdinand on the decease of 
Matthias. Before midsummer the exulting army 
of Thurn had reached the walls of Vienna, where 
Ferdinand was holding his court. 

No preparations were made to resist a siege. 
The troops in his service were few in number 
and disaffected for want of pay. The population 
were almost equally divided on the question of 
religion. A deputation came from the Austrian 
estates demanding his signature to a compact 
with the Bohemians. One day fifteen Austrian 
nobles crowded into his chamber, and one of them 
seized him by the button and cried: "Ferdinand, 
wilt thou sign it?" What could he do? He was 
no coward, and his mind was decidedly against 
the reformed religion. He threw himself down 
before the crucifix, and the image of Jesus bowed 
his head to the royal suppliant, so it was reported, 
and so perhaps he fancied he heard the consoling 
answer to his petition, "Ferdinand, I will not 
forsake thee." Soon after a trumpet announced 



The Thirty Years' War. 35 

the entrance into the city of a regiment of horse 
that had found a gate unguarded by the besieg- 
ing army. But this re-enforcement would have 
been of no avail had Count Thurn been supplied 
with siege equipage, and had he been seconded, 
as he expected, by a rising of the Protestant fac- 
tion of the city. A report that Bucquoi had 
defeated Mansfield and was marching on Prague, 
added wings to his retreat. 



36 The Thirty Years' War. 



Cllkptef IV. 

FERDINAND ELECTED EMPEROR OF GERMANY — HE IS DE- 
POSED FROM THE KINGDOM OF BOHEMIA — FREDERICK, 

ELECTOR OF THE PALATINATE, IS CHOSEN KING HIS 

ARMY UNITES WITH THAT OF THE PRINCE OF TRANSYL- 
VANIA AND BESIEGES VIENNA — FERDINAND IS AGAIN 
RELIEVED — MAXIMILIAN, OF BAVARIA, ENGAGES TO 
AID HIM — JOHN GEORGE, OF SAXONY, LIKEWISE — 
THE UNION AND THE LEAGUE ARM FOR THE CON- 
FLICT — FRANCE INTERPOSES — MAXIMILIAN MARCHES 
INTO UPPER AUSTRIA AND THENCE INTO BOHEMIA — THE 
BATTLE OF PRAGUE — DEFEAT OF THE BOHEMIANS — 
FLIGHT OF FREDERICK — FERDINAND TEARS UP THE 
ROYAL CHARTER, AND THE LIBERTIES AND RELIGION 
OF THE BOHEMIANS ARE TRAMPLED UNDER FOOT. 

T~\IRECTLY upon the end of the siege, Fer- 
-*— J dinand hastens to Frankfort, where the elec- 
tion of a successor to Matthias, as Emperor of 
Germany, was to take place. The Protestant 
electors, if united, might have prevented his elec- 
tion, but John George, of Saxony, got mad in 
debate with the Elector Palatine Frederick, and 
cast his vote for Ferdinand; the rest gave in for 



The Thirty Years' War. 37 

one reason or another, and the vote was unani- 
mous for Ferdinand, who was declared emperor, 
with the title of Ferdinand II, August 28, 161 9. 

Only two days before, the Bohemian Diet 
deposed him from the throne of Bohemia and 
elected Frederick in his place. In deposing Ferdi- 
nand they declared that he had shown himself an 
enemy to the religion and liberties of Bohemia; 
had by his bad counsels alienated from them the 
Emperor Matthias; and had furnished him foreign 
troops to invade and spoil the country. It was 
not easy for the Diet to decide upon his successor; 
some voices were for the Duke of Bavaria and 
some for the Duke of Savoy — both of them were 
Catholics. Nor could the Lutherans and Calvin- 
ists readily agree on any man ; but finally the 
consideration that Frederick was personally an 
agreeable and virtuous person, the leader of the 
Evangelical Union, the kinsman of the Duke of 
Bavaria, and the son-in-law of James I of England, 
determined their choice. 

The Elector of Saxony and the Duke of Ba- 
varia, and even the King of Great Britain and his 
4 



38 The Thirty Years' War. 

own mother, advised him not to accept a position 
so full of peril. But his own ambition, the advice 
of the astrologers, the unanimous wishes of the 
people, the conviction that God had called him to 
this position, and the eager desires of his wife, pre- 
vailed over all scruples and fears. "Had you," 
said the daughter of James I, "confidence enough 
in yourself to accept the hand of a king's daughter, 
and have you misgivings about taking a crown 
which is voluntarily offered you ? I would rather 
serve bread at thy kingly table than feast at an 
electoral board." 

He was crowned with great pomp at Prague. 
Silesia and Moravia offered their homage to him, 
and Denmark, Sweden, the Dutch Republic, and 
Venice acknowledged him as King of Bohemia. 
Above all, the nation itself was full of joy and 
enthusiasm at the election of a king who would 
protect their religion and defend their liberties. 
Had his courage and ability been equal to his 
vanity, Frederick might have fulfilled all their 
fond expectations and maintained himself upon a 
throne so generously bestowed upon him. The 



The Thirty Years' War. 39 

great difficulty before him was to reconcile the 
Germanic princes to seeing one of their number 
already potent as an elector of the empire taking 
possession of another electoral throne. 

The first event after his coronation, affecting 
his prospects, was an alliance with Bethlehem Ga- 
bor, prince of Transylvania, to invade Hungary 
and Austria. Of a sudden this half-barbaric 
prince appeared at the head of a victorious army 
in Upper Hungary. The nation submitted to him 
at once, and he was crowned king at Presburg. 
He was ready now to march on Vienna. The 
army of Bucquoi was summoned to the defense 
of the capital. The Bohemian army pursued them, 
and re-enforced by twelve thousand Transylvanian 
troops, and united to the legions of Prince Gabor, 
they laid siege a second time to Vienna, and the 
newly elected emperor was again put in peril of 
his life and crown. But, as before, unexpected 
events turned out in his favor. The troops left 
by Gabor in Hungary were attacked and defeated. 
He was obliged, therefore, hastily to withdraw 
from the walls of Vienna, and the coming on of 



40 The Thirty Years' War. 

the Winter made it necessary that the Bohemian 
army should go into quarters. 

The Catholic princes of Germany and their 
allies, the Pope and the Jesuits, mocked at the 
usurpations of Frederick, and augured his speedy 
downfall. " He has cast himself," said the Pope, 
"into a fine labyrinth." Maximilian, of Bavaria, 
whose dominions bordered on Bohemia and the 
Palatinate, made a treaty with Ferdinand II to 
assist him in putting down the rebels, on condi- 
tion of having transferred to himself the electoral 
dignity of Frederick and the payment of his 
expenses during the war. The Catholic League 
were ready to espouse his cause, and Spain prom- 
ised large subsidies of money. 

What was there to offset this alliance on the 
side of Frederick? The Protestant Union seemed 
comparatively lukewarm and inert; and some of 
the allied princes deemed the cause as not within 
the purpose of the Union. Where was John 
George, of Saxony, whose territory bordered on 
the north and west of Bohemia? He was not 
willing to see the Union of the Palatinate and 



The Thirty Years' War. 41 

Bohemia under his rival, who would thereby 
have two votes in the electoral college and over- 
shadow all the other Protestant members of the 
empire. He finally agreed to an alliance with 
Ferdinand, provided the League "would never 
attempt to secure by force the lands of the Prot- 
estant administrators, or the secularized lands in 
the northern territories, as long as the holders 
continued to act as loyal subjects." All this was 
promised, and confirmed by Ferdinand II. 

While the armies of the union and the league, 
under their respective leaders, were making ready 
for a decisive battle, France offered her media- 
tion, being more concerned for the preservation 
of peace in her own borders by the suppression 
of Protestant rebels in Bohemia than for the pre- 
vention of the growth of Austria. Under her 
influence a treaty was signed at Ulm, by which 
it was agreed that the union should abandon all 
interference with the affairs of Bohemia, and con- 
fine the aid which they might afford to Frederick 
to his Palatine territories. 

The league was now at liberty to unite with 



42 The Thirty Years' War. 

the Bavarians to put down the revolution in 
Bohemia, while the union could only defend their 
own territories if attacked. Very soon Maximil- 
ian surprised the disaffected Estates of Upper 
Austria by the appearance of his army; and they 
submitted without a struggle, and sought the par- 
don of the emperor. He next united his forces 
with those under Bucquoi, and entered Bohemia 
at the head of fifty-five thousand men. Town after 
town were stormed, and capitulated; or terrified 
by his approach, opened their gates to him. The 
Bohemian army, numbering but thirty thousand, 
under Prince Christian of Anhalt, retreated to 
the White Mountains, near Prague, and intrench- 
ing itself, awaited the attack of the enemy. On 
the morning of November 8, 1620, the united 
forces of Bavarians and imperialists appeared in 
sight, led by Tilly, as commander-in-chief. The 
attack was delayed for a short time by a division 
of opinion between Tilly and Bucquoi as to the 
expediency of an immediate battle. The dispute 
was terminated by the enthusiasm of a Dominican 
friar, who exhorted them to make no delay, for 



The Thirty Years' War. 43 

the Lord would deliver the heretics into their 
hands. "See here," said he, showing them a 
figure of the Virgin, which had been mutilated 
by the reformers; "see here, what they have 
done. The prayers of the Holy Virgin will be 
yours. Trust in God, and go boldly forth to the 
battle. He fights on your side." 

Inspired by these assurances, and by the lesson 
of the Gospel for that Sunday morning, which 
contained the words, "Render unto Caesar the 
things which are Caesar's," the order was given to 
advance upon the enemy's works. They were 
met by the discharges of the ten cannon on the 
heights and the rush of Anhalt's cavalry. The 
front rank gave way; but the heavy columns of 
Walloons and Bavarians came up, and with over- 
whelming numbers repelled the cavalry, and 
broke the ranks of the Bohemian infantry, who 
were put to flight The German troops, seeing 
this, gave way also. In less than an hour the 
victory was complete. Four thousand of the 
Bohemians were slain, and all their artillery fell 
into the hands of the enemy. 



44 The Thirty Years' War. 

Frederick had not expected the attack of the 
enemy on that day, and was in the city of Prague, 
entertaining two English Envoys. The noise of 
the battle called him from the hotel, and from the 
walls of the city. He saw with dismay the flight 
of his army. He sent a flag to the Duke of 
Bavaria, and requested a cessation of hostilities 
for twenty-four hours, to give him time for delib- 
eration. Eight hours only were allowed him. 
During the night he fled from the city, accom- 
panied by his wife, the Prince of Anhalt, Count 
Thurn, and other military and civil officers. He 
fled first to Breslau, and finally to the Hague, in 
Holland. 

The next day Prague surrendered, and other 
towns followed its example. The Estates of Bo- 
hemia, Silesia, and Moravia hastened to make 
their submission to the emperor. At first he put 
on an aspect of clemency; but when the nobles 
were thereby deceived, and had returned to 
Prague, all of a sudden they were arrested, and 
twenty-seven of them, together with a large num- 
ber of inferior citizens, perished on the scaffold. 



The Thirty Years' War. 45 

The absentees were condemned, and their lands 
confiscated. All Protestant preachers were ex- 
pelled from the kingdom. The royal charter was 
torn in pieces by the emperor, and the seal thrown 
into the fire. Toleration of the Reformers was 
revoked, and Romanism was established as the 
religion of the kingdom. The victory of Ferdi- 
nand II was complete. 



46 The Thirty Years' War. 



Chapter V. 



FREDERICK PUT TO THE BAN — MANSFIELD STILL STANDS 
FOR HIM — THE MARGRAVE OF BADEN JOINS HIM, ALSO 
FREDERICK OF BRUNSWICK — TILLY DEFEATS THE 
MARGRAVE AT WIMPFEN — CHRISTIAN IS DEFEATED AT 
HOOCHST — THE CAUSE IS LOST, AND FREDERICK DIS- 
MISSES MANSFIELD AND CHRISTIAN, AND RETIRES TO 
THE HAGUE — THE DISMISSED GENERALS WAGE WAR ON 
THEIR OWN ACCOUNT — DIET AT RATISBON — FREDERICK 
IS DEPOSED FROM HIS ELECTORATE, AND IT IS GIVEN 
TO MAXIMILIAN FOR HIS LIFE-TIME. 

T_T AD Ferdinand contented himself with his 
■*■ *• victory over Bohemia, the thirty years' 
war of Protestants and Catholics would not have 
stained the pages of history. But no; he wanted 
to share with Maximilian of Bavaria the rich 
provinces of the Palatinate. Accordingly, on 
the 22d of January, 1621, Frederick, with all 
due formality, was put to the ban; that is, polit- 
ically excommunicated from the empire, and his 
estates and prerogatives declared forfeited. The 



The Thirty Years' War. 47 

Protestant princes of Germany, of course, were 
deeply offended, and alarmed to see a Protestant 
principality usurped by the Catholic party, and 
more particularly because Ferdinand had pledged 
himself, when elected, not to put any one to the 
ban without a full and fair trial. But Ferdinand 
had agreed to indemnify Maximilian for his ex- 
penses in the war, and how could he do it better 
than to give him a share of the Palatinate ? Be- 
sides, had he not promised the Holy Virgin, both 
at Loretto and at Rome, that he would at every 
risk and .sacrifice extend her worship ? 

Had Frederick on his part acknowledged his 
defeat, and abandoned his ambitious claims on 
the sovereignty of Bohemia, he might have se- 
cured sympathy and aid from the Protestant 
nations. Had his father-in-law, the pusillanimous 
King of England, stood forth courageously in his 
behalf, he might have arrested his downfall. He 
offered his mediation, but it was not to be backed 
up by the sword, and was of no effect. As to 
the Evangelical Union, it had been compelled 
to sign a treaty of peace with Spinola, and to 



48 The Thirty Years' War. 

withdraw its troops from the territory of the 
Palatinate. 

Ernest, Count Mansfield, was left in Prague 
when Frederick fled from it, and he held it until 
his soldiers mutinied for their pay and yielded 
the city to the emperor. He immediately took 
position in the Upper Palatinate with what troops 
he could retain under his banner; and about his 
little army, as a nucleus, he gathered twenty 
thousand men, mostly from the disbanded forces 
of the union. The Bavarian General Tilly was 
sent against him, but he adroitly avoided a con- 
flict, and led his troops into the Lower Palatinate. 
He crossed the Rhine, entered Alsace, and took 
possession of Hagenon and fortified it. Subsisting 
his army by the plunder of the province, and re- 
cruited, he next marched again into the Lower 
Palatinate. 

In disguise, Frederick here visits his camp. 
He is now encouraged by the coming to his aid 
of George Frederick, Margrave of Baden, with 
an army which he had been enlisting without 
making known the object he had in view. To 



The Thirty Years' War. 49 

secure his son in his inheritance of the margra- 
vate, he resigned it formally to him before he 
started for the enterprise. The combined armies 
met Tilly at Wiesbach, and he was compelled to 
retreat to Wimpfen, where he was re-enforced by 
Cordova, commander of the Spanish troops be- 
longing to the Spanish Netherlands. Finding it 
impossible to subsist so large an army, Mansfield 
separated his troops from those of the margrave. 
Tilly and Cordova seized the opportunity to at- 
tack the margrave, and completely routed his 
army. Cordova then went in pursuit of Mans- 
field, and obliged him to retreat to his stronghold 
in Alsace. 

Christian of Brunswick, cousin of Elizabeth, 
the wife of Frederick, won by her charms to en- 
list in the forlorn cause of her husband, was now 
ready to join Mansfield, and was on his march, 

with a large army, to the Main. Frederick 

1 

and Mansfield went forth to meet him. They 
marched through Darmstadt, whose landgrave, a 
Lutheran, had made himself obnoxious by adher- 
ence to the Emperor Ferdinand; and every-where 



50 The Thirty Years' War. 

along their march they ravaged and plundered 
the country. Delayed by a fortified post on the 
Main, they were overtaken by Tilly and Cordova, 
and compelled to retreat to Manheim. The vic- 
torious generals then went to meet Frederick. A 
battle took place at Hochst, in which Christian 
suffered great loss, but succeeded in crossing the 
Main and joined Mansfield at Manheim. They 
were here abandoned by the Margrave of Baden 
and retreated to Alsace. Here Frederick, dis- 
gusted with the predatory manner in which they 
carried on the war, formally dismissed them from 
his service and returned to Sedan. Thence he 
retired again to the Hague, where he disappears 
from the scene of conflict for ten years. Ferdi- 
nand had proposed that he should first lay down 
his arms, and then appeal for clemency; and 
James I thought this was the proper course to 
take. It was this reason, more than any thing, 
which induced him to dismiss his last supporter, 
and to await the emperor's decision. 

The dismissed generals now undertook war on 
their own account. They marched first to Lor- 



The Thirty Years' War. 51 

raine and refreshed the troops upon the spoils of 
the country. They were then called into the 
service of the Dutch Republic. The Spanish 
commander Spinola was now laying siege to Ber- 
gen-op-zoom. To reach the scene of action they 
crossed the Spanish Netherlands, and were met 
at Fleurus by an army under Cordova. Just as 
they were going into battle two of Mansfield's best 
regiments refused to engage in the battle unless 
their arrears should be paid. In this emergency 
Mansfield addressed the mutinous troops, and 
with promises of redress as soon as possible, begged 
them to keep their position if they did not fight. 
They obeyed their general' so far, and with the 
appearance to the enemy as a reserve force, they 
saw their comrades enter into a desperate battle. 
The troops of Christian fought with a good will. 
Charging at the head of his cavalry again and 
again, he had three horses killed under him, and 
was shot in his left arm. They conquered, and 
marched on to Bergen-op-zoom and raised the 
siege. After the battle at Fleurus it was found 
that Christian's arm must be .amputated, and he 



52 The Thirty Years' War. 

ordered the trumpets to keep sounding while the 
operation was being performed. 

After a short engagement in the service of the 
Dutch, Mansfield rested and fed his army by for- 
age and plunder in East Friesland, and Duke 
Christian withdrew into Lower Saxony to await 
further opportunities to strike at his enemies. 
"The arm that is left shall give my enemies 
enough to do," he said; and upon the money 
he coined from Spanish silver he had captured 
he stamped the inscription, "Altera restat, the 
other remains." Though Frederick had aban- 
doned his cause, he carried the princess's glove in 
his hat, and put on his banners, "All for God 
and thee." 

Meanwhile, the emperor had summoned an 
Electoral Diet at Ratisbon, to decide the fate of 
the Palatinate. The majority of the electors were 
Catholics, and it was clear how the vote would 
be. John George, of Saxony, to be sure, was 
a Protestant, and the chief of the Protestant 
princes; but he was a Lutheran, and he hated the 
Calvinists almost as bad as the Catholics. The 



The Thirty Years' War. 



53 



sectarianism and bigotry of Protestants was the 
cause of troubles in Germany and the United 
Netherlands, only second to Jesuitism and the In- 
quisition. No resistance was made to the verdict 
of the majority of the electors, and Maximilian 
was declared Elector of the Palatinate for his 
life-time; but this should not prejudice the claims 
which his heirs might set up after the demise of 
Maximilian. It was also agreed that if Frederick 
should abandon his claim to the electorate, and 
ask forgiveness of the emperor, he would take 
into favorable consideration the restitution of his 
estates. This was all a mere pretense. The cur- 
tain now falls on the first act in this sad drama. 
5 



54 The Thirty Years' War. 



dl^ptef VI. 

THE LOWER SAXON CIRCLE — MAKES PREPARATION FOR 
WAR — THEY EXPEL CHRISTIAN OF BRUNSWICK, AND 
HE IS PURSUED AND DEFEATED BY TILLY AT STADT- 
HOLM — LOWER OR NORTHERN GERMANY NOW ARMS 
AGAINST FERDINAND — APPEAL IS MADE TO ENGLAND, 
HOLLAND, VENICE, DENMARK, AND SWEDEN — ENGLAND 
ENLISTS FRANCE — AN EXPEDITION UNDER MANSFIELD 
SENT OUT FROM ENGLAND IS SUFFERED TO DISPERSE 
FOR WANT OF SUPPLIES — INTERVENTION OF CHRISTIAN 
IV, OF DENMARK — THE EMPEROR NEEDS ANOTHER 
ARMY UNDER TILLY — COUNT WALLENSTEIN OFFERS TO' 
FURNISH IT — WALLENSTEIN IS ATTACKED BY MANS- 
FIELD AT DESSAU — MANSFIELD IS DEFEATED — MARCHES 
THROUGH SILESIA TO TRANSYLVANIA — PURSUED BY 
WALLENSTEIN — HE JOINS BETHLEN GABOR — DISBANDS 
HIS ARMY — DIES AT ZERA — DEFEAT OF CHRISTIAN IV 
AT LUTTER. 

'T^HE Lower Saxon Circle had as yet taken no 
-*■ active part in the war, but now, by the 
coming of Christian of Brunswick, into their ter- 
ritory, they were obliged to arm themselves. Tilly 
was upon their borders, and urged them to take 
sides with the emperor, who would maintain his 



The Thirty Years' War. 55 

promise at Miihlhausen not to disturb their pos- 
session of the bishoprics. Finally Christian, by 
alliance with his brother, the reigning Duke of 
Brunswick, Wolfenbuttel, and by large enlistments 
of troops, alarmed the Circle, and they ordered 
him to leave the territory. He charged them 
with betraying the cause of true religion; and 
took up his march for the Dutch Netherlands. 
Tilly immediately started in pursuit of him, and 
just before he reached the borders he was over- 
taken, and a battle ensued at Stadtholm. Vic- 
tory soon declared on the side of the veteran 
general and veteran troops over raw recruits, and 
so great was the slaughter and rout of Christian's 
army that scarce six thousand out of twenty thou- 
sand made good their retreat into Netherlands. 

Mansfield withdrew his troops to the lower 
Rhine and there disbanded them. There was no 
army now on foot except that of Tilly, and the 
war was over and the emperor was victorious. 
But, as the emperor and the League kept their 
army in the field, there was no peace. Southern 
or Upper Germany was subdued; but Lower or 



56 The Thirty Years' War. 

Northern Germany, where Protestantism was in 
the ascendancy, was not yet touched, except where 
Tilly had invaded and ravaged Lower Saxony. 
But this was enough to alarm them. They awoke 
to the danger of the situation and began to arm. 
The recovery of the Catholic bishoprics inter- 
spersed through Northern Germany was still an 
object of Ferdinand's bigoted ambition. They ap- 
pealed for help to England, Holland, Venice, and 
especially to Denmark and Sweden. 

James I was roused at last from his delusive 
dream of an alliance with Spain. Prince Charles 
had gone with Buckingham, the king's favorite, to 
see and woo the Spanish Infanta, but he had come 
back disappointed in that and in his hope of 
Spanish intervention in behalf of the restoration 
of the Palatinate to his brother-in-law, Frederick. 
James had discernment enough to see the danger 
arising from an overgrown imperial power in Ger- 
many, and that nothing could prevail against it 
but a European confederacy. His Parliament 
went no further with him than to approve of his 
tentative negotiations with other nations. He 



The Thirty Years' War. 57 

accordingly conferred with the French Govern- 
ment. The result was, that Louis XIV, under 
the advice of Richelieu, his great minister, would 
not directly engage to furnish troops for the 
reconquest of the Palatinate, but he agreed to 
furnish large subsidies to the Dutch in their strug- 
gle with the Spaniards, and to aid James in an 
expedition preparing in England under Mansfield 
to attack the Palatinate. This expedition proved 
a failure. Mansfield landed on the Dutch coast 
with twelve thousand English infantry, and was 
joined by two thousand French cavalry under 
Christian of Brunswick." But James dared not 
assemble his Parliament to ask for money, and he 
had no sufficient means of providing for the 
troops, and they came near perishing or dispersing 
before they reached the scene of war. Subse- 
quently the civil war with the Huguenots tied the 
hands of Richelieu, and for the present nothing 
could be done for the Protestants of Germany. 

While Mansfield was preparing his expedition 
in England James I sent Sir Robert Anstruther as 
embassador to Christian IV, king of Denmark, 



58 The Thirty Years' War. 

and Sir James Spens to Gustavus Adolphus, to 
engage them in the great antagonism to the ambi- 
tious projects of Ferdinand and the Catholic 
league. 

Gustavus did not immediately accede to this 
overture. He had a clear and comprehensive 
view of the greatness and difficulty of the under- 
taking. He saw that to arrest effectually the 
aggressive movements of the emperor and the 
League, that all their opponents from Hungary to 
France should be enlisted. Nor was he willing to 
have a subordinate or divided command, but the 
chief direction of the war. He required, also, 
that one port on the Baltic and another on the 
North Sea must be put in his possession to secure 
his communication. He calculated that fifty thou- 
sand men would be necessary at the outset, and 
that of these England must support seventeen 
thousand with advance pay for four months. 
These views not being accepted by the English 
Government, he turned to carrying on his war 
against Sigismund, his rival in Poland. 

Christian IV, of Denmark, was more eager for 



The Thirty Years' War. 59 

the enterprise, and more moderate in his terms. 
He was a member of the Lower Saxon Circle, as 
Duke of Holstein, and he had a special interest in 
the secular bishoprics — that of Verden on the Elbe 
belonging to one of his sons, and that of Bremen, 
on the Weser, being his in regular succession. 
He reckoned that thirty thousand men would be 
sufficient, of which England should provide for 
six thousand. These views were more acceptable 
to the English Government, and Charles I having 
succeeded his father on the throne, engaged to sup- 
ply thirty thousand pounds monthly for the war, 
and ordered Mansfield to join his forces directly 
with those of the King of Denmark. The Circle 
of Lower Saxony placed their army also under his 
command, and with a force variously estimated 
from thirty thousand to sixty thousand he took 
the field against Tilly. 

It was clear to the mind of Ferdinand that 
Tilly's army was not equal to the emergency, and 
he had not resources sufficient to engage auxil- 
iaries. What should he do? At this moment 
Count Wallenstein made the surprising offer of 



60 The Thirty Years' War. 

raising and clothing an army of fifty thousand 
men, provided that he should have the supreme 
command of them. 

Who was Count Wallenstein ? Albert, of Wald- 
stein, was a descendant of an old aristocratic Bo- 
hemian house. His Lutheran parents left him an 
orphan, at the age of twelve years, to the care of 
an uncle, who sent him to a Moravian school 
for his education. He disliked the severe disci- 
pline of the school, and escaped to a Jesuit institute 
at Olmiitz. Here he adopted the Roman religion 
as a matter of form, and along with it a real faith 
in astrology, by which he was assured that a 
grand destiny awaited him. He embraced the 
life of a soldier in the service of the Archduke of 
Austria, and obtained distinction in several cam- 
paigns before the Bohemian revolution. He be- 
came wealthy and the owner of large estates in 
Bohemia by marriage. At the time of the Bohe- 
mian revolution he deserted to the emperor, carry- 
ing off the treasure-box of the estate of Moravia; 
but Ferdinand sent the money back, not liking that 
method of replenishing his exchequer. He fought 



The Thirty Years' War. 6i 

at the battle of Prague, and was promoted to be 
major-general, in which capacity he achieved a 
victory over a Hungarian army invading Bohemia. 
He was rewarded by a large share of the forfeited 
estates of the rebel nobility; and was known at 
the time as the richest noble in Bohemia, and 
was Prince of Friedland. He was of noble stat- 
ure and mien, with keen, bright eyes and with fea- 
tures expressive of decision and severity of tem- 
per. He was born to command, and his nod was 
law to all around him. His offer was accepted 
by Ferdinand, and in a few months he appeared 
on the borders of Lower Saxony at the head 
of thirty thousand men, splendidly arrayed and 
equipped. His method of supporting them was 
not to be like that of Tilly and Mansfield, by 
indiscriminate plunder of friends and foes, but by 
forced contributions; a method, however, which 
Ferdinand had no right to sanction, for by the 
fundamental laws of the empire no money could 
be exacted for military purposes, but by vote of 
the Diet. He was directed to unite with Tilly 
and attack the King of Denmark, but he chose 



62 The Thirty Years' War. 

to act independently towards the same end ; and 
indeed he was obliged to take this course in order 
to subsist his army on territory which could sup- 
ply provisions. He accordingly marched to Des- 
sau, and made himself master of both banks of 
the River Elbe, from which he could attack 
Christian IV in the rear as he faced Tilly's army, 
or at his option invade his territory. 

Here he was confronted by Mansfield. Hav- 
ing fortified the bridge at Dessau, he surrounded 
himself with intrenchments, and was ready to 
defy the enemy. 

On the 25th of April, 1626, the battle was 
fought. Mansfield surveyed his position, but, 
deeming it not impregnable, he ordered the as- 
sault. His hardy troops rushed impetuously upon 
the intrenchments, but failed to carry them. In 
the moment of surprise and confusion which fol- 
lowed an unsuccessful assault, Wall' >r,pf ein ordered 
a charge. It swept the field, n rmy of 

Mansfield was routed, but not 

He was soon after re-enforced -rnest, 

of Weimar, and by recruiting in Brandenburg he 



The Thirty Years' War. 6$ 

marched through Silesia, to form a union with 
Bethlen Gabor and invade Austria. Seeing this, 
Wallenstein, after sending a few regiments, made 
haste with the main body of his army to intercept 
him. But Mansfield outmarched him, and reached 
the camp of Gabor, in Transylvania. But Gabor 
was looking for aid from England, and re-enforce- 
ments from Lower Saxony and the Turks; and in- 
stead of this he found himself, by his union with 
Mansfield's jaded and poorly supplied army, ex- 
posed to the attack of Wallenstein's victorious 
legions. He accordingly determined to abandon 
the project of invading Austria, and made a treaty 
of peace, treacherously determining, however, to 
break it when it should suit his purpose to 
do so. 

What, in these circumstances, could Mansfield 
do? He disbanded most of his army, and, sell- 
ing his artil'Vr^. and baggage-train, he proceeded, 
on the.' ' Gabor, towards Venice, with a 

small * ^rtion of his army. His career 

was 1 ._■.•• Ing to an end. At Dara, in Dal- 



64 The Thirty Years' War. 

matia, he was attacked with a fever. Seeing 
death was near, he said, "Raise me up — I am 
dying now." His friends lifted him from the 
bed, that he might look out upon the hills as the 
day was dawning. With the great cause still at 
heart to which he had devoted his life, he said to 
them, with his dying breath, " Be united, united; 
hold out like men." 

It is time to return to the King of Denmark. 
Disappointed of supplies from England, he con- 
ceived the idea of passing through Thuringia 
into Bohemia, and forming a junction with Mans- 
field and Bethlen Gabor to invade Austria. He 
had reached Duderstadt when Tilly came up with 
him, and he was obliged to direct his course to 
Brunswick. Tilly followed, and came up with 
him in the neighborhood of Lutter. A battle was 
now inevitable. The king took the initiative, and 
three times charged the enemy at the head of his 
cavalry. The fight thickens; but in the midst of 
it some of the Danish regiments protested that 
they would not fight without pay. The superior 



The Thirty Years' War. 65 

discipline and number of Tilly's veterans prevail. 
The Danes are routed, leaving four thousand men 
dead upon the field, among them many officers 
of distinction. Christian of Brunswick was not 
in the battle, having died a few weeks before the 
fatal day. The king, with his cavalry, escaped 
from the scene of slaughter, and was joined not 
long after by the straggling remnants of his army. 
Charles I sent him the avails of a forced loan in 
England and six thousand men. Count Thurn, 
the Margrave of Baden, Durlach, and Bernard 
of Weimar joined the forces with him. 

Wallenstein's return to the scene of the conflict 
in North Germany, and the combined movements 
of the two imperial armies, made the cause of 
Christian IV hopeless. He loses fortress after 
fortress; his allies, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel 
and the Elector of Brandenburg, are forced to 
desert him. Wallenstein overruns Silesia, and 
compels the principal cities and towns to send 
ransoms to fill his treasury. Christian IV makes 
overtures for peace; but Wallenstein requires the 



66 The Thirty Years' War. 

surrender of Holstein as a condition, which can 
not be submitted to. In a few months all Schles- 
wig and Jutten, except a few towns, are occupied 
by the enemy. At last the king withdrew the 
remnant of his army to the island of Funen. 



The Thirty Years' War. 67 



Cukptef VII. 



wallenstein's policy of religious equality and a 
real german empire — the electors opposed to 
his course — he conquers mechlenburg — stral- 
sund is besieged, but in vain — gltckstadt also 
resists the combined attack of tilly and wallen- 
stein — wallenstein suggests peace with den- 
mark — christian iv makes a treaty of peace at 
lubeck — wallenstein is rewarded with the duchy 
of mechlenburg — the emperor's oppressive pol- 
icy — the edict of restitution — the assembly at 
ratisbon demands the dismissal of wallenstein — 
he returns to his estates in bohemia, and in 
almost regal state abides his time. 

\H /"ALLENSTEIN had larger and wiser views 
■ * than his contemporaries in respect to the 
use the emperor should make of his triumphs over 
Germany. The league wished him to subsist his 
armies by contributions on Protestants alone, and 
to confiscate their estates to Catholic princes and 
bishops. On the contrary, he advised the em- 
peror to adopt a liberal policy, and to establish 



68 The Thirty Years' War. 

religious equality for the whole empire. With 
this understanding he could increase his army, 
and enforce and maintain a united German Em- 
pire. Eggenberg, the chief minister of Ferdinand, 
saw it in the same light, and together they per- 
suaded the emperor to approve of it. But how 
could Ferdinand reconcile the avaricious and big- 
oted members of the Catholic league to any scheme 
which should not give them back the secularized 
bishoprics, the spoils of the war, and religious 
domination? The Jesuits would listen to nothing 
but the complete religious subjugation of the Prot- 
estants and confiscation of their property to Popery. 
In October of 1627 the electors held an assem- 
bly at Miihlhausen, to consider what policy should 
be adopted. The Catholic electors, with the 
Elector of Bavaria at their head, held that the 
disloyal Protestant administrators had forfeited all 
rights secured to them by former treaties. John 
George of Saxony and the other Protestant elec- 
tors had nothing to say. The war had been 
waged against Ferdinand wholly against their 
most urgent advice. But these views could not 



The Thirty Years' War. 69 

be carried out without Wallenstein's favor and 
support. They complained of his perpetual en- 
listment of soldiers, and his forced contributions 
from friends and foes alike. They did not like the 
hints which came to them that he was aiming to 
establish a national imperial government, instead 
of the. aristocratic Germanic confederation which 
bore the name of empire. They saw, however, 
that the time was not ripe for overthrowing the 
military despotism which the war had created, 
and they contented themselves for the present 
with petitioning the emperor to mitigate the evils 
of which they complained. 

The next important enterprise of Wallenstein 
was the conquest of the Duchy of Mechlenburg, 
which the emperor pledged to him for the pay- 
ment of his military expenses. He had now 
reached the borders of the Baltic, and he could 
look over the sea to Denmark and Sweden, and 
scheme for the conquest of these kingdoms. He 
was made Duke of Friedland before, and he was 
now made Admiral of the Baltic. The Hanse 
towns, those great commercial cities of the North, 



70 The Thirty Years' War. 

were offered a monopoly of the trade of Germany 
with Spain and her provinces, if they would fur- 
nish him a fleet. But this they had the inde- 
pendence politely to decline. As to the seaports 
on the coast of the Baltic, he soon took posses- 
sion of Weimar, and blocked up the harbor of 
Rostock with sunken vessels. He now turned 
his attention to Stralsund, a free city that had 
taken no part in the war. He demanded that a 
garrison of his troops should be admitted into it, 
and when this was declined he laid formal siege 
to it. His General Arnim seized Danholm, a 
small island at the mouth of the harbor. But the 
citizens of Stralsund sent a force against him, and 
retook the island and fortified it. With the great- 
est unanimity, they bound themselves in a solemn 
covenant to defend to the last their city, their 
liberties, and their religion. And how could Wal- 
lenstein, without ships of war, hope to take a city 
constantly supplied with troops and munitions of 
war from Denmark and Sweden ? Wallenstein 
grew desperate. "I will have Stralsund," he 
exclaimed, "even if it be fastened by chains to 



The Thirty Years' War. 71 

heaven." To a deputation of citizens he said, 
drawing his hand over the surface of his table, 
"Your town shall be made as flat as this." But 
when months had passed, and no advantage was 
gained by all his efforts, he lowered his terms, 
and simply demanded that, instead of a garrison 
of the imperial army, a garrison of their own 
nominal ruler, the Duke of Pomerania, who was 
not hostile to the emperor, should take possession 
of the city. The Council of the city was ready 
to yield to this, but the heroic citizens would not 
allow of it. They preferred the alliance of Swe- 
den and Denmark to any submission whatever to 
the dictates of Wallenstein or his imperial master. 
Christian IV had put a Danish garrison in the 
city, and had come himself to give them encour- 
agement. He had sent ships also to resist and 
to sink a Polish fleet which Sigismund had sent 
against it. When the Danish garrison was de- 
pleted by the long siege, Christian IV consented 
that a Swedish garrison should take their place. 
And now appears upon the scene of war that 
noble people whose great king, Gustavus Adolphus, 



72 The Thirty Years' War. 

was to act so great a part in the deliverance of 
Protestant Germany. . After many months of use- 
less fighting, and the loss of twelve thousand men, 
the conquering pride of Wallenstein was humbled, 
and he abandoned the siege, August 3, 1628. 
The tide of victory began to turn on the shores 
of the Baltic. 

In the beginning of next year Wallenstein met 
with another repulse. Tilly had long been be- 
sieging Gluckstadt, and Wallenstein came to his 
aid, but their united efforts were in vain. The 
Danish cruisers kept open the communication by 
the sea, and supplied them with food and muni- 
tions of war. Finally the besieged garrison made 
a powerful sally upon the ranks of the enemy and 
destroyed them. The siege was at an end. 

Wallenstein having had a taste of combined 
Danish and Swedish valor, concluded that it 
would be best to separate the two nations by 
making peace with Denmark. He made over- 
tures to the King of Denmark, and a conference 
was held at Liibeck. Christian IV was weary 
with the war, and Charles I of England having 



The Thirty Years' War. 73 

failed to send him the succor promised, on ac- 
count of the difficulties between him and his 
Parliament, he consented, without consulting with 
Sweden, to a treaty of peace. The terms were 
that his "hereditary possessions occupied by the 
enemy should be restored to him, while he should 
resign all claim to the bishoprics held by his fam- 
ily in the empire." " He should interfere no 
more with the affairs of Germany, and should 
leave the Dukes of Mecklenburg to their fate." 
The name of the Elector Palatine was not even 
mentioned in the treaty, though his restoration to 
his hereditary estates was one of the chief objects 
of the war. The peace of Liibeck reflects no 
glory on the name of Christian IV. 

The emperor, who had another war on his 
hands in Italy, was on his part greatly relieved 
by the treaty; and Wallenstein, for the part he 
had in it, was rewarded with the Dukedom of 
Mecklenburg. This gave great dissatisfaction to 
the German nobles and people, who questioned 
his right, by his own authority, to dispose of the 
estates of princes in this manner. 



74 



The Thirty Years' War. 



There was an anxious desire for peace through- 
out the realm. The whole country had suf- 
fered from the ravages of the armies of both par- 
ties. Nothing now but religious bigotry and 
contention prevented an effectual peace. The 
emperor, instead of treating his subjects with im- 
partiality, took the side of the Roman Catholics. 
In his hereditary Austrian and Bohemian estates he 
announced that the Protestants must abjure their 
religion or leave the country. The Upper Pala- 
tinate and a part of the Lower had been ceded 
to the Elector of Bavaria, who required first of 
the nobles and then of the people that they must 
conform to the Catholic faith or leave the country 
in two months. 

In 1628, Ferdinand sent out commissioners 
through Southern Germany to report the eccle- 
siastical property which had come into the posses- 
sion of Protestants since the Convention of Pas- 
sau. All the Catholic churches which, by treaty, 
had been held for half a century by Protestants, 
were restored to the Catholic party, though in 
some towns there was none or next to none of 



The Thirty Years' War. 75 

the Catholic population left to take possession. 
In the north of Germany he pursued the same 
policy in a wholesale manner. He issued, March 
29, 1629, the Edict of Restitution, by which two 
archbishoprics, twelve bishoprics, and two hun- 
dred and twenty abbeys and monasteries were 
restored to the Roman Church. 

"The edict came," says Schiller, "like a thun- 
derbolt on the whole of Protestant Germany, 
dreadful even in its immediate consequences; but 
yet more so from the further calamities it seemed 
to threaten. The Protestants were now con- 
vinced that the suppression of their religion had 
been resolved upon by the emperor and the 
League, and that the overthrow of German lib- 
erty would soon follow. Their remonstrances 
were unheeded; the commissioners were named, 
and an army assembled to enforce obedience. 
The edict was put in force in Augsburg, where 
the treaty was concluded — the city was again 
placed under the government of its bishops, and 
six Protestant Churches in the town were closed. 
The Duke of Wurtemberg was, in like manner, 



76 The Thirty Years' War. 

compelled to surrender his offices. These severe 
measures, though they alarmed the Protestant 
States, were yet insufficient to rouse them to active 
resistance. Their fear of the emperor was too 
strong, and many were disposed to quiet submis- 
sion. The hope of attaining their end by gentle 
measures induced the Roman Catholic authori- 
ties to delay for a year the execution of the 
edict, and thus saved the Protestants. Before 
the end of that period the success of the Swedish 
army had totally changed the state of affairs." 

Wallenstein had now increased his army to 
one hundred thousand men, none too many for 
the work the emperor had on hand — with the war 
in Italy, the danger of French and Swedish inter- 
ference, and the internal excitement of the whole 
of Germany. But his ascendancy in the affairs of 
the emperor incited the jealousy and the ill will 
of the Duke of Bavaria and the other loyal princes, 
and the exactions and barbarities of his army 
of mercenaries raised a continual outcry from all 
the provinces which were the theater of war. Pe- 
titions came from all quarters to the emperor to 



The Thirty Years' War. 77 

interfere. Wallenstein had insulted the princes 
of the empire by his insolent and overbearing 
behavior, and at the Diet of Ratisbon his dis- 
missal from the command of the imperial armies 
was demanded by the-whole college of electors. 
Wallenstein appeared at Ratisbon with great pomp, 
and set himself to counteract the machinations 
of his enemies. He showed clearly to the em- 
peror that it was the selfish ambition of the Duke 
of Bavaria to rule over the councils and armies 
of the empire, that made the trouble. But the 
emperor had a prospect of having his son Ferdi- 
nand elected King of Hungary, and he must not 
excite the ill will of the Duke of Bavaria and the 
other electors. This settled the matter. After 
long hesitation he painfully decided to deprive 
Wallenstein of his command, and the man who 
had saved him from ruin by his sacrifice of wealth 
and his surpassing military ability must now go 
into private life. Tilly was appointed to super- 
sede him as generalissimo of the imperial armies. 
Wallenstein was with his army when this de- 
cision was made, and two of his personal friends 



78 The Thirty Years' War. 

were selected by the emperor to convey to him 
in the most conciliatory manner possible the em- 
peror's mandate, with assurances of his personal 
regard. Wallenstein was forewarned of his fate, 
and concluding that the time was not favorable to 
his scheme of a real German Empire, he restrained 
his indignation. "The emperor," he said, "is 
betrayed. I pity, but forgive him. It is plain 
that the grasping spirit of the Bavarian dictates to 
him. I grieve that with so much weakness he 
lias sacrificed me, but I will obey." 

Wallenstein retired to his estates in Bohemia 
and Moravia, where he was followed by multi- 
tudes of his officers and soldiers, who were indig- 
nant at his treatment. There his immense wealth 
enabled him to maintain an almost royal state. 
Life guards paraded in his antechamber, and six 
barons, six knights, and sixty pages waited upon 
him. He built magnificent palaces in Prague and 
several other towns ; and he traveled from place 
to place followed by his court in sixty carriages, 
accompanied by fifty led horses and a hundred 
baggage-wagons. Awe-inspiring by his presence, 



The Thirty Years' War. 79 

he attached every body to his service, if not to 
his person, by his unbounded munificence. In 
this manner he waited for the auspicious time 
when his services would be again needed, and he 
could execute his schemes. The astrologers had 
assured him that the stars proclaimed a glorious 
future for him, and he believed in it. 

Under the cold northern stars beyond the Bal- 
tic a Christian king had prepared an army of 
veterans to intervene in behalf of the oppressed 
Protestant princes and people of Germany. It 
had already landed in Pomerania, and its victo- 
rious progress would soon make it necessary for 
the emperor to place again in power his banished 
general. 



8o The Thirty Years' War. 



Cfykptei? VIII. 



SKETCH OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS — HIS BIRTH — PRECOCIOUS 
TALENT — HIS ACCESSION TO THE THRONE — HIS MAR- 
RIAGE — WAR IN RUSSIA AND POLAND — PREPARES TO 
UNDERTAKE THE CAUSE OF GERMAN PROTESTANTS — 
HIS FAREWELLS — HIS ARMY DISCIPLINE — TAKES RU- 
GER — DRIVES THE IMPERIALISTS INTO BRANDENBURG — 
THE ELECTOR REMAINS NEUTRAL — TILLY ASSEMBLES 
THE IMPERIAL ARMY AT FRANKFORT — HE HASTENS TO 
MEET GUSTAVUS BUT SOON RETIRES TO BESIEGE MAG- 
DEBURG — GUSTAVUS TAKES FRANKFORT — SIEGE AND 
DESTRUCTION OF MAGDEBURG. 

/~* USTAVUS ADOLPHUS was born in Stock- 
^-* holm, Sweden, December 9, 1594. Ten 
years before his birth Tycho Brahe had predicted 
the birth of a prince in the North, who should 
become the deliverer of the oppressed Church 
of the Reformation. He was the grandson of 
Gustavus Vasa, and the son of Charles IX, who 
was raised to the throne in place of his elder 
brother, Sigismund, who, by the law of Sweden, 
was disqualified on account of his being a Cath- 



The Thirty Years' War. 8i 

olic. Charles was reluctant to take the place 
of his brother, and nobly promised that if a son 
should be born to Sigismund, who should become 
a Protestant, he would resign the crown to him. 
Sigismund inherited the crown of Poland through 
his mother, and he raised in that kingdom an 
army to invade Sweden and seize the throne by 
violence. He was defeated in battle, and signed 
an abdication of his claims. Finland was in- 
volved in this insurrection, and Charles IX, tak- 
ing with him his son, then only seven years of 
age, led an army into that province, and after a 
desperate struggle subdued it. Gustavus pos- 
sessed a body that was sinewy and lithe, and a 
mind clear, active, and energetic. At the age of 
sixteen _he was master of six languages, Swe- 
dish, Latin, German, Dutch, French, and Italian. 
He was carefully taught by both his father and 
mother the principles of the evangelical religion ; 
and he deeply drank into the spirit of Chris- 
tianity, and manifested it through his whole life in 
camp and court, in the privacy of domestic life, 
and on the battle-field. He was a born soldier, 



82 The Thirty Years' War. 

fearless, vigilant, patient, and indefatigable. At 
seventeen years of age he was placed over a regi- 
ment, and did such effectual service in an expe- 
dition for the relief of Calmar, besieged by the 
Danes, that when his father was called away from 
the army to attend a Diet he was left at its head. 
On the journey his father fell ill and died, leaving 
him to ascend the throne. The estates of his 
kingdom declared him of age, preferring the young 
and precocious prince to a regency. 

His brother, Charles Philip, was a competitor, 
with Uladislas, the son of Sigismund of Poland, 
for the crown of Russia, and Gustavus took up 
arms in his behalf; but when the Russians re- 
nounced both competitors and elected one of 
their own countrymen, he retired from the contest 
and received from the new sovereign, as compen- 
sation, a large addition to the territory of Sweden. 

He had wars with Poland and Prussia, in 
which he first met Wallenstein as an antagonist, 
to whom he wrote: "What motive have you 
to meddle with my affairs?" "My master, the 
emperor," replied Wallenstein, "has too many 



The Thirty Years' War. 83 

troops, and he is obliged to send a few of them 
to his friends." In an encounter with these 
troops at Marienburg he came near losing his 
life. In the thick of the fight the saber of a sol- 
dier struck off his hat, and directly after he was 
seized by the arm by another trooper, and would 
have been killed had not one of his own dra- 
goons thrown himself upon the enemy and par- 
ried the blow aimed at his life. 

He overran Prussia as far as Dantzic, and re- 
stored in every city the Churches of the Protest- 
ants. He tolerated the Catholics, and by his 
clemency in treating the conquered cities he sur- 
prised the people, and conciliated them. 

He was happy in the choice of a wife, the 
pious and beautiful daughter of the Duke of 
Brandenburg; but it was otherwise in respect to 
his offspring. His first child was still-born, and 
the next was a daughter, who brought disgrace 
upon her family by her wicked conduct in after- 
life, and was obliged to abdicate the crown of 
Sweden. In personal presence he was tall and 
well-proportioned in body and limbs. His face 



84 The Thirty Years' War. 

was long, with regular features, a high, retreating 
forehead, and piercing black eyes. He usually 
wore a mustache, curled upward at the ends, and 
a beard under his chin. 

While still engaged in war with Sigismund of 
Poland, an embassador sent by Richelieu, from 
the Court of France, appeared, and made over- 
tures to him to engage with France in opposing 
the ambitious projects of the Emperor Ferdinand 
II. He visited each of the hostile camps, and 
succeeded in persuading Sigismund that it was 
not for his interest to continue a war for the ben- 
efit of the emperor. A truce for six years was 
the result. This left Gustavus at liberty to inter- 
fere in behalf of the oppressed princes of Ger- 
many. He chose not, however, to make any 
alliance with France, on any terms proposed by 
Richelieu, but, trusting that God had called him 
to this work, he prepared to rely on his own re- 
sources. His trusted and able chancellor, Oxen- 
stiern, was at first opposed to the enterprise. But 
he was convinced by the arguments of Gustavus 
that it was both right and expedient. " If we 



The Thirty Years' War. 85 

await the enemy in Sweden," said the king, "in 
the event of a defeat every thing would be lost; 
by a fortunate commencement in Germany every 
thing would be gained. The sea is wide, and we 
have a long line of coast in Sweden to defend. 
If the enemy's fleet should escape us, or our own 
be defeated, it would in either case be impossible 
to prevent the enemy's landing. Every thing de- 
pends on the retention of Stralsund. As long as 
the harbor is open to us we shall both command 
the Baltic and secure a retreat from Germany. 
But, to protect this port, we must not remain in 
Sweden, but advance at once into Pomerania. 
Let us talk no more, then, of a defensive war, by 
which we shall sacrifice our greatest advantages. 
Sweden must not be doomed to behold a hostile 
banner. If we are vanquished in Germany, it 
will be time enough to follow your plan." 

To the Senate, assembled at Upsal, he ex- 
plained his plans, and the lofty motives which 
prompted him to the work. When it was sug- 
gested that after so many years of war he needed 



86 The Thirty Years' War. 

repose, he replied, "There is no repose to be 
expected but in eternity." 

Of his army, fifteen thousand men only were 
to embark with him for Germany : ten thousand 
were to be under Oxenstiern, to encamp in Prus- 
sia to guard his interests there, and as a camp of 
observation against Poland. A reserve corps was 
to abide in Sweden for its defense, and as a nu- 
cleus about which to gather and discipline recruits 
for the future necessities of the war. In his last 
interview with the states of his kingdom, he pre- 
sented to them his little daughter, and commended 
her to their affection as the heir to his throne. 
"I have not," he said, "thoughtlessly engaged in 
this perilous war which calls me far from you. 
Heaven is my witness that it is neither for any sat- 
isfaction nor personal interest that I go into this 
conflict. The emperor has ruthlessly insulted me 
in the person of my embassadors; he has sus- 
tained my enemies, and persecuted my friends 
and my brethren; he has stretched out his arm 
to snatch from me my crown. Ready to sink 



The Thirty Years' War. 87 

under the weight of oppression which hangs over 
them, the German Protestants stretch out suppli- 
ant hands to us. If it please God, we will give 
them aid and protection. I am not ignorant of 
the dangers that await me. I have already been 
in many others, and by the grace of God I have 
ever come happily out of them. But I feel I 
may lose my life there; and this is why, before 
leaving you, I commend you all to the protection 
of the Omnipotent One. I pray him to bestow 
on you the divine benediction, in order that after 
this terrestrial life, which is so transient, we all 
meet each other in eternity." Having addressed 
himself particularly and severally to the senators, 
the pastors, and the representatives of the citizens, 
he concluded: "Finally, I send up to God most 
ardent prayers for all my subjects, whether pres- 
ent or absent. I say to you all farewell, from the 
depths of my heart, and perhaps forever." 

These farewells, betokening a good and pious 
heart, and shaded by a forecast of his death, 
were delivered with great emotion, amidst the 
tears and sobs of the whole assembly. 



88 The Thirty Years' War. 

Two hundred transports were waiting at Elfs- 
naben to convey his troops across the Baltic. 
His army had been drilled on an original plan, 
with a view to rapid movements. The infantry 
were arranged with wider intervals between the 
battallions, and the cavalry were massed in smaller 
squadrons, and the infantry were intermingled 
with them, to make a show of a large force. In 
advancing to battle, the army was drawn up in 
two lines, one behind the other, that in case the 
front rank gave way the rear rank would advance 
to meet the enemy, to give opportunity for the 
defeated troops to rally behind it. The strictest 
military discipline was maintained. Gambling, 
theft, profanity, and dueling were severely pun- 
ished. Every regiment had its chaplain, and 
held religious services regularly, morning and 
evening. 

All things- being ready, the troops were em- 
barked, and after a long and stormy passage 
reached the island of Rugen, belonging to Aus- 
tria, where, on the 24th of June, 1630, just one 
hundred years after the Augsburg Confession of 



The Thirty Years' War. 89 

Faith was adopted, they landed and intrenched 
themselves. The king was the first to step ashore; 
and he kneeled down and offered thanks to God 
for their safe arrival. It was an easy matter to 
drive the imperial troops from that and the neigh- 
boring islands, and to hold them as mediums of 
communication with Sweden. 

He then advanced to Stettin, the capital of 
Pomerania. Bogislaus XIV was Duke of Pom- 
erania, an aged man, an ally of the emperor, 
who had afforded aid to Wallenstein in the siege 
of Stralsund, but more from motives of fear than 
of devotion to Ferdinand. Gustavus demanded 
the surrender of the town, and the reception of a 
Swedish garrison. The aged duke came to the 
camp of the Swedes, and begged to be consid-. 
ered a neutral. "I come to you," said the king, 
"not as an enemy, but as a friend. I wage no 
war with Pomerania, nor against the German 
Empire, but against the enemies of both. In my 
hands this duchy shall be sacred. It shall be 
restored to you at the conclusion of the campaign 
by me more certainly than by any other. Look 



90 The Thirty Years' War. 

to the traces of the imperial force within your 
territories and to mine, and decide whether you 
will have the emperor or me as your friend. 
What have you to expect if the emperor should 
make himself master of your capital? Will he 
deal with you more leniently than I ? Or is it 
your intention to stop my progress? The case is 
pressing. Decide at once, and do not compel me 
to have recourse to more violent measures." 

The aged duke found himself between two 
fires. He dreaded the wrath of the emperor; 
but the army of the Swedes was yet more to be 
dreaded, as already in his territory. "Be it as 
you wish, in God's name," he said; "and let the 
king be to me as a father." "Nay," replied the 
king, "I would rather be your son." 

By the possession of Stettin he secured a depot 
for his army, and the command of the Oder and 
an open door to all Pomerania. The most of his 
troops were encamped in tents outside of the city; 
and their perfect discipline, and the respect they 
showed the persons and property of the inhab- 
itants, excited their good will. 



The Thirty Years' War. 91 

Multitudes came to enlist in the king's service. 
The young men of the land, the disbanded troops 
of the King of Denmark, of Mansfield, and Duke 
Christian of Brunswick, and even stragglers from 
the armies of the emperor, flocked to his standard. 
Torquato Centi, the general of the imperial troops, 
made an attack upon the Swedes, but was defeated 
and followed by the victors, who captured city 
after city. The retreating enemy laid waste the 
land in revenge on the Duke of Pomerania, and 
many villages were laid in ashes. This only 
served to wed the hearts of the people to Gus- 
tavus, and they voted him a contribution of a 
hundred thousand florins. 

As Winter approached Torquato Centi made 
overtures for a cessation of hostilities, that the 
armies might go into Winter quarters. But Gus- 
tavus, whose troops were used to the rougher 
Winters of a more northern latitude, and who had 
been provided with sheepskins for any extremity 
of weather, had no idea of suspending the cam- 
paign. Torquato soon after resigned his com- 
mand, and his army, after being compelled to 



92 The Thirty Years' War. 

surrender Greifenhagen, Gaster, and Piritz, re- 
treated in haste toward Brandenburg. 

In pursuing the Imperialists the king, on one 
occasion, came near losing his life. In making a 
reconnoissance of the enemy's position in view 
of attacking, he was surprised and surrounded by 
a force far superior to his staff. His horse was 
shot under him, and he was in imminent danger 
of being killed or taken prisoner, when suddenly 
a company of Finns, that had accompanied him 
part way and were halted to await his return, 
hearing the firing, and supposing the king was in 
danger, rushed into the scene and rescued him. 

Arrived on the borders of Brandenburg he 
solicited the alliance of his brother-in-law, George 
William, the Elector of Brandenburg. But he 
held back, dreading to incur the wrath of the 
emperor. To the embassador who came to an- 
nounce that the elector declined to commit him- 
self, and that he refused to open to the Swedes 
the fortress of Castein to facilitate their march, 
Gustavus used this decisive language: "It is time 
for his highness to open his eyes, and to rouse 



The Thirty Years' War. 93 

himself from his ease, that his highness may no 
longer be in his own land a lieutenant of the 
emperor; nay, rather of the emperor's servant. 
He makes a sheep of himself to be eaten by the 
wolf. His highness must be my friend or enemy, 
when I come to his frontier. He must be hot or 
cold. No third course will be allowed, be you 
sure of that." But Gustavus had to wait for time 
and the events of the war to produce a change in 
the mind of the elector. Already the outrages 
and plundering of the soldiers of the emperor's 
army in their course through his dominions had 
so disgusted and offended him, that he issued an 
order to the people to strike and put to death 
any soldier detected in stealing. 

The advance of the Swedes now began to 
alarm the emperor. He had laughed at the idea 
of Gustavus undertaking, with a small army, to 
revolutionize his empire and rescue from his iron 
grasp the Protestant bishoprics and principalities. 
He called him the "Snow King," and predicted 
that he would soon melt away. But now he found 
that an invading army that knew no Winter, and 



94 The Thirty Years' War. 

was sweeping all before it, was no jesting matter. 
His great general, Tilly, now generalissimo of the 
army, had never a doubt that the invasion of the 
Swedes was a formidable thing. "The King of 
Sweden," he said, "is an enemy both prudent 
and brave, inured to war, and in the flower of 
his age. His plans are excellent, his resources 
considerable; his subjects enthusiastically attached 
to him; his army composed of Swedes, Germans, 
Livonians, Finlanders, Scotch, and English, by its 
devoted obedience to their leader, is blended into 
one nation; he is a gamester, in playing with 
whom not to have lost is to have won a great 
deal !" 

Schiller describes Tilly as follows: "Equally 
stern towards his soldiers and implacable towards 
his enemies, and as gloomy and impenetrable as 
Wallenstein, he was greatly his superior in probity 
and disinterestedness. A bigoted zeal for religion, 
and a bloody spirit of persecution, co-operated 
with the natural ferocity of his character to make 
him the terror of the Protestants. A strange 
and terrific aspect bespoke his character; of low 



The Thirty Years' War. 95 

stature, thin, with hollow cheeks, a long nose, 
a broad and wrinkled forehead, large whiskers, 
and a pointed chin; he was generally attired in 
a Spanish doublet of green satin, with slashed 
sleeves, with a small high-peaked hat upon his 
head, surmounted by a red feather, which hung 
down to his back." 

He gathered the imperial armies into one in 
Brandenburg at Frankfort, on the Oder, in mid- 
winter. Thence, with a strong detachment, he 
hastened to relieve Denmin and Colberg, in Pom- 
erania; but the Swedes were too quick for him, 
and had already taken both places. He then 
withdrew towards Magdeburg, on the Elbe, to 
besiege that city. 

The King of Sweden now made a rapid move- 
ment upon Frankfort, where eight thousand of 
the imperial army, under Schaumberg, were left 
in defense of the town. After three days' fight- 
ing it was taken by storm. No quarter was given 
to the enemy, in retaliation of the treatment of 
a Swedish regiment who were surrounded by 
Tilly on his first advance and were allowed 



96 The Thirty Years' War. 

no quarter. With the cry of "New Branden- 
burg Quarter/' the victorious Swedes killed every 
man they met or threw him into the Oder, and 
breaking all restraint, for three hours they rav- 
aged and plundered the town. The remnant of 
the enemy escaped into Silesia, leaving the artil- 
lery and stores in the hands of the victors. 

Prior to this, on the 23d of January, 1631, 
a treaty was signed at Barwalde, in Branden- 
burg, by the envoys of France and Sweden, by 
which France agreed to furnish large subsidies 
for five years, and the King of Sweden promised 
to keep thirty-six thousand men in the field, to 
respect the constitution of the empire as it was 
before the war, and to tolerate the Catholic relig- 
ion where it was already established. 

The free city of Magdeburg had, of its own 
accord, declared against the emperor, and a Swe- 
dish officer was admitted to conduct the defense. 
Gustavus would have marched from Frankfort to 
counteract the designs of Tilly, but while the 
Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg refused to 
allow him a passage through their territories, he 



The Thirty Years' War. 97 

could not do it. An appeal to the emperor had 
been made by them, and other Protestants in an 
assembly at Leipsic in March, 1631, to rescind or 
suspend the Edict of Restitution. On that condi- 
tion they would maintain their allegiance to him. 
No answer had been received, but the electors 
did not feel prepared as yet to break with the 
emperor. 

Gustavus continued his appeals to them. He 
took a select portion of his troops and marched 
to Berlin, and held a long conference outside of 
the city with the Elector of Brandenburg. To 
his appeals the elector at last gave way, and 
ordered the gates of Spandau to be opened to him 
as he had desired. But John George, of Saxony, 
would not accede to his wishes. The result was, 
that with great grief he felt obliged to resign 
Magdeburg to its fate. 

The imperial army at the siege had been 
strengthened by the arrival of re-enforcements 
under Pappenheim, from the emperor's Italian 
army, which had been set free by a treaty which 
secured peace to Italy. 



98 The Thirty Years' War. 

The siege went on for several months, and the 
defenses and walls of the city were not so far 
damaged as to warrant a general assault. At last 
it was determined to employ a stratagem to put 
the garrison and armed citizens off their guard. 
The imperialists pretended to be about to abandon 
the siege — the firing ceased — the batteries were 
withdrawn. The weary inhabitants retired to rest, 
and when the signal for the assault was given 
the walls and ramparts were almost deserted. 
Falkenburg, the Swedish general, was not asleep; 
and he hastened, with what force he could col- 
lect, to repel the invaders. The citizens, hear- 
ing the roar of musketry, rushed in a tumultuous 
manner to the walls, to find their governor killed, 
and the enemy pouring into the city. They 
fought until noon, when the last rampart was 
taken, and the gates were open to the main army 
of Tilly. He now swept the streets with his can- 
non, and the despairing inhabitants were driven 
into their houses to await their doom. 

At the word of Tilly, the fierce soldiers broke 
their ranks, and rushed upon their prey. The 



The Thirty Years' War. 99 

houses were rifled, the men murdered, the women 
violated, the children trodden under foot, stabbed, 
or thrown out of the windows. 

Some humane officers remonstrated with their 
general for not stopping the atrocious scene. 
"Return in an hour," said he. "I will see what 
I can do; the soldier must have some reward for 
his danger and toil." 

The soldiers had at the beginning set fires in 
different parts of the city, and now the rising 
winds were wrapping the whole city in flame and 
smoke. The diabolical scene of rapine, murder, 
and lust was suspended, while the soldiers escaped 
to their camp. Three churches, and here and 
there a house, escaped the conflagration. 

No less than thirty thousand of the inhabitants 
were killed by the sword, burnt in the fire, or 
thrown into the river. Four hundred of the rich- 
est citizens were saved by the officers of the 
league for the sake of getting a ransom; but the 
savage imperialists saved none. 

Tilly entered the city four days after the battle, 
and put an end to the slaughter and rapine which 



ioo The Thirty Years' War. 

was still going on amidst the smoldering ruins of 
the city. The cathedral was still standing, and 
sheltered one thousand wretched and starving 
people. Bread was given them by the orders of 
the general, and the cathedral was cleared for the 
celebration of a Mass and singing of the Te Deum 
for their victory. "That cathedral," says Gar- 
diner, "standing out from amidst the ruins of 
Magdeburg was but too apt a symbol of the work 
which Tilly and the league had set themselves to 
do. That the rights of the clergy and the Church 
might be maintained, all the homes and dwellings 
of men in Germany were to be laid waste, all the 
social and political arrangements to which they 
had attached themselves were to be dashed into 
ruin." This author thinks that Tilly was not re- 
sponsible for the destruction of the city by fire, 
but only for not suppressing the rapine and out- 
rage of which the soldiers were guilty; for the 
destruction of such a stronghold was a great loss 
to him. 



The Thirty Years' War. ioi 



diopter- IX. 

DESTRUCTION OF MAGDEBURG PRODUCES ALARM, FOLLOWED 
BY INDIGNATION — GUSTAVUS COMPELS THE ELECTOR OF 
BRANDENBURG TO ABANDON HIS NEUTRALITY— SAXONY 
ARMS — TILLY MARCHES INTO SAXONY, AND TAKIS 
LEIPSIC __jOHN GEORGE JOINS GUSTAVUS— THE BATTLE 
OF LEIPSIC — GREAT JOY FOR THE VICTORY— W ALLEN- 
STEIN GLAD OF IT — GUSTAVUS MOVES TOWARD THE 
RHINE — ERFURT, . KOENIGSHAFEN, SCHWEINFURT, 
WURTZBURG, AND NUREMBERG TAKEN— TILLY RETIRES 
BEFORE HIM— DUKE OF LORRAINE DEFEATED— TREACH- 
ERY OF THE BISHOP OF BAMBERG — SELINGENSTADT, 
ASCHAFFENBURG, STEINHEIM, AND FRANKFORT TAKEN — 
ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE GUSTAVUS BY A PRIEST- 
CAPTURE OF MAYENCE — GUSTAVUS NOW FLEES FROM 
BAMBERG, PURSUED BY TILLY— GUSTAVUS ARRESTS THE 
PURSUIT, AND DRIVES TILLY TO BAVARIA. 

THE fall of T^Iagdeburg awakened the great- 
est alarm in the Protestant states and cities. 
John George of Brandenburg, who had yielded 
somewhat to the claims of Gustavus, drew back, 
and took more firmly a neutral position. Gus- 
tavus, therefore, concluded to take more vigorous 
8 



102 The Thirty Years' War. 

measures to bring him to a sense of duty. He 
appeared with his army before Berlin, the capital 
city, and threatened an assault. "I will not be 
worse treated than the imperial generals," said he 
to the elector's embassador. "Your master lias 
received them into his territories, furnished them 
with all necessary supplies, ceded to them every 
place which they required; and yet by all these 
concessions he could not prevail upon them to 
treat his subjects with common .humanity. All 
that I require of him is security, a moderate sum 
of money, and provision for my troops. In return, 
I promise to protect his country, and to keep 
war at a distance from him. On these points, 
however, I must insist; and my brother, the 
elector, must instantly determine to have me as a 
friend, or to see his capital plundered." The 
elector did not wait for the arguments which the 
cannon, pointed at his gates, were about to utter; 
but at once agreed to renounce his neutrality, to 
open custom as he had and hand over to the 
king's troops, and to furnish a monthly subsidy 
of thirty thousand dollars. 



The Thirty Years' War. 103 

Gustavus was at the same time cheered by the 
coming of William of Hesse Cassel, and Bernard 
of Saxe Weimar, a young and valiant prince, to 
offer him their services. 

John George of Saxony, to whom, as a Prot- 
estant, many appeals had been made by Protest- 
ants to take sides with them, had, after the appeal 
to the emperor for the revocation or suspension 
of the Edict of Restitution had been denied, con- 
cluded to arm himself for any emergency. This 
was enough to give offense to Ferdinand II, and 
he ordered Tilly to advance into Saxony and 
force him to abandon his equivocal position. 

Immediately Tilly dispatched messengers to the 
elector, to open his territories to the imperial 
army, and to join him in opposition to the King 
of Sweden, threatening to overrun and ravage the 
country if he refused. 

The obstinacy of the emperor in maintaining 
the Edict of Restitution, the horrible treatment 
of Magdeburg, and the near approach of the 
Swedish army, put the elector in no mood to 
comply with these haughty demands. The mes- 



104 The Thirty Years' War. 

sengers were explicitly informed that he should 
make no change in his policy, and would brave 
all consequences. "I perceive, gentlemen," he 
said, as they sat at his banquet, "that the Saxon 
confectionery, which has so long been kept back, 
is at length to be set on the table; but, as it is 
usual to mix with it nuts and garnish of all kinds, 
take care of your teeth." 

He sent Field-marshal Arnheim to Gustavus 
soliciting his alliance. The king affected indiffer- 
ence. "I am sorry for the elector," he said. 
"Had he heeded my repeated remonstrances, his 
country would never have seen the face of an 
enemy, and Magdeburg would not have fallen. 
Now, when necessity leaves him no alternative, 
he has recourse to my assistance. But tell him 
that I can not, for the sake of the Elector of Sax- 
ony, ruin my own cause and that of my confed- 
erates. What pledge have I for the sincerity of a 
prince whose minister is in the pay of Austria, 
and who will abandon me as soon as the emperor 
flatters him, and withdraws his troops from the 
frontier? Tilly, it is true, lias received a strong 



The Thirty Years' War. 105 

re-enforcement, but this shall not prevent me 
from meeting him with confidence, as soon as I 
have covered my rear." 

When Arnheim inquired what guarantees the 
king would expect, he replied, "I require that 
the elector should cede to me the fortress of Wit- 
tenberg, deliver to me his eldest sons as hostages, 
furnish my troops with three months' pay, and 
deliver up to me the traitors that are among his 

ministry." 

<< Not Wittenberg alone," said the elector when 
his embassador returned, "but Torgau and all 
Saxony shall be open to him ; my whole family 
shall be his hostages; and if that is not sufficient, 
I will place myself in his hands. I am ready to de- 
liver to him any traitors he shall name, to furnish 
his army with the money he requires, and to ven- 
ture my life and fortune in his cause." 

The king replied, "The distrust which was 
shown to myself, when advancing to the relief of 
Magdeburg, had naturally excited mine; the elec- 
tor's present confidence demands a return. I am 
satisfied provided he grants my army one month's 



io6 The Thirty Years' War. 

pay, and even for this advance I hope to indem- 
nify him." 

The next day the king put his army in mo- 
tion, and crossed the Elbe into Saxony. Tilly 
advanced against Leipsic, and after some show 
of defense, which the condition of the fortifica- 
tions made it impossible to maintain, the city 
capitulated. 

Schiller states that " Tilly had fixed his head- 
quarters in the house of a grave-digger, the only 
one still standing in the suburbs of Halle ; here 
he signed the capitulation, and here, too, he 
arranged his attack on the King of Sweden. 
Tilly grew pale at the representation of the death's 
head and cross bones with which the proprietor 
had decorated his house, and, contrary to all 
expectation, Leipsic experienced moderate treat- 
ment." Was it not that shadow which had fallen 
upon his mind since he witnessed the horrible 
ruins of Magdeburg? 

In the council of war held at Torgau, by the 
Protestant princes, Gustavus hesitated to declare 
for an immediate attack on Tilly. "If we 



The Thirty Years' War. 107 

decide upon battle," he said, "the stake will be 
nothing less than a crown and two electorates. 
Fortune is changeable, and the inscrutable decrees 
of heaven may, for our sins, give the victory to 
our enemies. My kingdom, it is true, even after 
the loss of my life and my army, would still have 
a hope left. Far removed from the scene of ac- 
tion, defended by a powerful fleet, a well-guarded 
frontier, and a warlike population, it would at 
least be safe from the worst consequences of a 
defeat. But what chances of escape are there for 
you with an enemy so close at hand ?" But John 
George was eager for the battle, and was willing 
to risk all upon it. Moreover, it was urged that 
large re-enforcements to Tilly's army were under 
way. Finally, it was concluded that the attack 
should be made, and the two armies of the Swedes 
and Saxons, under Gustavus, crossed the Mulda 
River, and advanced toward Leipsic. They found 
the imperial army drawn up on the heights over- 
looking the plain of Breitenfeld, with the river 
Loben in front. The passage of the river was 
guarded by Pappenheim at the head of two thou- 



108 The Thirty Years' War. 

sand cuirassiers. The Swedes forded the shallow 
stream, and forced Pappenheim to retreat to the 
main body of the enemy. This was posted under 
the heights in a long line, with the artillery above 
them, commanding the whole plain. Their whole 
number was about thirty-four thousand — equal to 
the united armies of Saxons and Swedes. Tilly 
commanded the center of the line, Pappenheim 
the left wing, and Count Furstenberg the right. 
Opposed to them, on the plain, -was the Swedish 
army in its usual order of battle, with a second 
line behind the front and in small battalions, with 
the cavalry in small squadrons, intermixed with 
musketeers, posted upon their wings. The king, 
with General Bauner under him, took his position 
on the right, opposite to Pappenheim; Colonel 
Tenfel commanded the center, and Gustavus Horn 
on the left wing. Beyond him, at some distance, 
the Saxon army was posted under its generals, 
the elector himself being present. 

After a brisk discharge of artillery for two 
hours Tilly descended from his elevated position 
and commenced a furious attack upon the Saxons, 



The Thirty Years' War. 109 

who were put to the rout, with the exception of 
six regiments. The elector was swept away with 
the fugitives, and fled to Eilenburg. Meantime, 
the two thousand cuirassiers, under Pappenheim, 
threw themselves upon the right wing of the 
Swedes. Seven times they repeated the charge, 
but in vain; they were routed at last, and fled 
from the field in disorder. Tilly having routed 
the Saxons advanced upon the Swedes, but was 
bravely resisted by Gustavus Horn, until the king, 
having got rid of Pappenheim, rushed to their 
aid and repelled the enemy. He then hastened 
to Tenfel, and ordered him to attack the artillery 
on the heights. After a fierce struggle the cannon 
were captured and turned upon the flank of the 
enemy engaged with the main body of the Swedes. 
An immediate retreat of the whole body of the 
enemy was the result. They fled in disorder from 
the field, all except four regiments of veterans, 
who maintained the contest until their numbers 
were reduced to but six hundred men. The flying 
foe were pursued by the Swedish cavalry until the 
darkness of night put an end to the battle. 



no The Thirty Years' War. 

Seeing how great a victory was gained over a 
grand army, led by the greatest general yet in 
the service of the emperor, Gustavus Adolphus 
threw himself upon his knees on the blood-stained 
ground, and offered thanksgiving to Almighty 
God. He encamped that night on the field of 
battle. The loss of the enemy in killed, wounded, 
and prisoners was twelve thousand men. Tilly 
himself was wounded, and came near being taken 
prisoner. He followed his flying troops to Halle 
and Haberstadt, where he could rally only two 
thousand men out of the whole army. 

The Elector of Saxony was left to recapture 
Leipsic, which he very soon accomplished, while 
Gustavus marched to Merseburg and Halle, which 
were successively surrendered. There he was 
joined by the elector, and plans were concerted 
for his future operations. 

The news of the great victory at Leipsic and 
the annihilation of the imperial army spread joy 
over all Protestant Europe. Wallenstein, in his 
splendid retirement, exulted at the mortification 
which the emperor and his advisers experienced. 



The Thirty Years' War. hi 

He even went so far as to suggest that if Gusta- 
vus would give him command of twelve thousand 
of his Swedes he would drive the House of Aus- 
tria across the Alps. " If I had suffered such a 
defeat as Tilly I would kill myself," he said. 
"But it is a good thing for us." "The greatest 
folly the Bohemians had committed," he said, 
"had been to throw Martinitz and Slawata out 
of the window, instead of thrusting a sword 
through their bodies." 

The idea of Gustavus was to break in two. the 
empire, and to establish a North German Confed- 
eracy, a Corpus Evangeliconim, as he styled it, 
which should maintain the Protestant religion 
against all enemies. For this reason he did not 
march directly on Vienna and conquer Austria. 
His business was to expel the enemy from the 
Protestant states, and secure their independence. 
Consequently he turned towards the Rhine, in 
which direction Tilly had fled with the fragments 
of his army. The palatinate must be recon- 
quered; the great Protestant commercial cities of 
Augsburg, Nuremberg, Ulm, and Strasburg were 



ii2 The Thirty Years' War. 

waiting for him; there, too, was the "Priest's 
Lane," the ecclesiastical territories which had 
supported the league — namely, Wiirzburg, Bam- 
berg, Fulda, Cologne, Treves, Mentz, Worms, 
Spires — which must now be made to supply him 
with money and his army with food. 

Accordingly, dividing his army, he sent the 
Elector of Saxony to reconquer Bohemia, and 
with his Swedes began his march northward. He 
arrived at Erfurt October 2d, and found its gates 
open to him by the ascendency of the Protestant 
party. There he established a garrison, and left 
his queen, who had come to him some time be- 
fore with a re-enforcement of six thousand troops. 
Thence, crossing the Thuringian Forest, he en- 
tered Franconia, and captured the fortress of 
Koenigshafen. Soon after he took possession of 
Schweinfurt and Wurtzburg, from which the gar- 
risons had fled in haste at his approach. Marien- 
burg, full of all kinds of stores and wines of the 
Bishop of Wurtzburg, and well fortified, he car- 
ried by storm. He soon overran the whole 
bishopric. 



The Thirty Years' War. 113 

Tilly had collected a considerable army, and 
felt strong enough to resist the progress of Gus- 
tavus. But he was commanded by his superior, 
the Duke of Bavaria, not to risk a pitched battle; 
and he was obliged to content himself with cov- 
ering a few towns, and at length, crossing the 
Main, marched to protect the Palatinate. 

The Duke of Lorraine, having raised an army 
of seventeen thousand men, splendidly equipped, 
but without experience in war, had the vanity of 
opposing the march of the victorious veterans of 
Gustavus. But the first approach of the Swedish 
cavalry threw them into a panic; they were soon 
routed, and fled across the Rhine. As the crest- 
fallen duke hastened through a village on the 
Rhine, a peasant struck his horse, exclaiming: 
"Haste, sir; you must go quicker to escape the 
great King of Sweden." 

The Bishop of Bamberg saved his territories 
by overtures of peace; but when the King of 
Sweden had passed on in his triumphant course 
he treacherously broke the truce, and opened his 
.fortresses to Tilly. But by this perfidy he only 



ii4 The Thirty Years' War. 

made his bishopric the theater of war, with all its 
ravages; for a Swedish general, left in command 
in Franconia, very soon marched to contest the 
question of occupancy, and the country became 
the prey of spoilers from both armies. 

Having secured the conquest of Franconia, 
and enlisted therein large bodies of men, who 
were drawn to him by his great fame and the 
forbearance and generosity he had displayed to- 
wards the inhabitants, he pressed towards the 
Rhine, leaving eight thousand of his troops under 
Gustavus Horn to hold the country. Having 
subjected Seligenstadt, Aschaffenburg, Steinheim, 
and the whole of the territory on both banks of 
the River Main, he marched to take possession 
of Frankfort. Deputies came to him, begging 
to retain its neutrality, fearing the destruction 
of its trade and commercial privileges from the 
vengeance of the emperor, if the fortunes of war 
should go against them. "I am astonished," 
said the king to them, "to learn that Frankfort 
prizes more highly its wealth than it does the 
duties which religion and patriotism impose upon 



The Thirty Years' War. 115 

it ; it is little to its honor to talk of its shops and 
fairs when the liberty of Germany and the Refor- 
mation are at stake. Moreover, from the Isle of 
Riigen to the banks of the Rhine I have found 
the keys of all the fortresses; I can also find 
those of Frankfort. It is for the well-being of 
Germany, and for the independence of the Prot- 
estant faith, that I do battle. No obstacle can stop 
me, for I am conscious of the justice and noble- 
ness of my cause. I see plainly that the inhab- 
itants of Frankfort think it sufficient to extend to 
me a finger, but I must have the entire hand ; on 
this condition alone will I protect them." 

The king dismissed them, and ordered his 
army to take a menacing position before the city. 
Their own predilections, and this appearance of 
compulsion, prevailed, and the gates were thrown 
open to him. He marched his army with flying 
banners through the city, and, leaving a garrison 
of 'six hundred men, he hastened that very day 
to Hochst, in Mentz, which before night opened 
its gates to him. 

In Frankfort Gustavus held court for some 



n6 The Thirty Years' War. 

time, at which he had the presence of his queen, 
Maria Eleanor, and his chancellor, Oxenstiern. 
Various embassadors and princes came to pay 
homage to him, and to form alliances with him. 
He regretted to perceive the discord which pre- 
vailed among them, and how ready they were to 
risk a noble cause for selfish ends. 

He had good reason to suspect the Landgrave 
of Hesse Darmstadt of playing a treacherous game 
with him. One day he said to him: "If the 
emperor does not trouble me, I will not trouble 
him; your lordship can tell him so, for I know that 
you are a good subject of the emperor." The 
Jesuits taught the people to pray for his assassina- 
tion, and one night an armed man, who proved 
to be a priest, was found concealed in his bed- 
chamber. When his friends expressed their anx- 
iety for his safety, he said to them: "A king can 
not live shut up in a box. The wicked have not 
so much power as ill will, and confidence in God 
is the best safeguard. If I fall, God will raise up 
other instruments. His work does not depend on 
the life of one man." When they still urged him 



The Thirty Years' War. 117 

to be more on his guard, he said, "Will you then 
that I should learn to distrust Providence ?" 

While his generals and allies were achieving 
victories in North Germany and Lower Saxony 
the king, re-enforced by ten thousand Hessians, 
commanded by the Landgrave of Casse, pro- 
ceeded to the attack of Mayence, the capital of 
the Electorate of Mentz. The elector had re- 
paired the fortifications and received a garrison 
of two thousand Spanish soldiers. He closed the 
mouth of the Main by piles and sunken ves- 
sels and rocks. He took good care, however, to 
carry away his most precious treasures to Cologne. 
The king was preparing to make the assault, when 
report came that Tilly was advancing toward Nu- 
remberg; and he turned away to protect that 
city. When he reached Frankfort he heard that 
the city had made a resolute defense, and Tilly 
had withdrawn. Returning rapidly toward May- 
ence, he crossed the Rhine in face of a Spanish 
force, and laid siege to Oppenheim, a neighboring 
town, and in a few days took it by assault and 
destroyed the Spanish garrison. The crossing of 



n8 The Thirty Years' War. 

the Rhine was regarded as so great a feat, that 
seventy years afterwards it was commemorated by 
a marble lion on a lofty pedestal, holding a sword 
in his paw and a helmet on his head. While 
reconnoitering on the west bank, to which he 
passed in a small boat, he came near being cap- 
tured by a troop of Spaniards, and saved himself 
by retreating rapidly to his boat. 

The city of Mayence was strongly fortified and 
defended by a large force of Spaniards, who 
threw showers of bombs into his ranks as he 
approached the trenches, killing many of his 
brave soldiers. Still they pressed on, and were 
just about making a grand assault, when signals 
were made for a truce. The Spanish troops, to 
save the town, agreed to capitulate, provided they 
might withdraw unmolested. It was granted, the 
greater part of the garrison left the city, but a 
large portion preferred to enlist in the Swedish 
army. The citizens saved their property from 
pillage by the payment of eighty thousand florins, 
all except the Jews and the Roman clergy, who 
were obliged to make special contributions of 



The Thirty Years' War. 119 

larger amounts. The king took up his residence 
in the elector's palace, and it being now the depth 
of Winter, he put his troops into quarters in the 
city and neighborhood. He greatly enlarged and 
strengthened its fortifications, and built at the op- 
posite angle which the Main forms with the Rhine 
a new citadel, which was variously called Gustav- 
usburg or PfafTeraub — a hard name, meaning the 
plunder of the priests. 

Leaving Mentz under the government of Chan- 
cellor Oxenstiern the king directed his march to 
Franconia, where Gustavus Horn was contending 
with Tilly for the possession of the Bishopric of 
Bamberg. General Horn had swept the territory 
and captured the capital by storm. The Duke 
of Bavaria, yielding to the importunities of the 
bishop, had authorized Tilly to put forth all his 
power to recover the province. He collected 
twenty thousand men, and made an assault upon 
Bamberg. A strange panic seized the garrison on 
the approach of the vanguard; they opened the 
gates and fled, the resistance of the general avail- 



120 The Thirty Years' War. 

ing nothing but to save the baggage and artillery. 
They were pursued, but under their skillful gen- 
eral retreated in good order and placed the 
river Main between them and their enemy. The 
king now opportunely appearing, the pursuit was 
arrested, and Tilly, in his turn, was forced to 
retreat. 

The entire force of the united armies under 
Gustavus was not less than forty thousand men. 
Before such a host Tilly could do nothing but 
retreat hastily to the borders of Bavaria, there 
to make his stand for the protection of that 
electorate. 

As the king passed on through the Palatinate, 
leaving his army outside he made an entry into 
the city of Nuremberg . attended by the German 
princes and generals and an escort of cavalry. 
He was received with every token of welcome as 
the deliverer of Protestant Germany. "The no- 
ble appearance of his person," says Schiller, 
"completed the impression produced by his glo- 
rious exploits, and the condescension with which 



The Thirty Years' War. 121 

he received the congratulations of this free city 
won all hearts." When he came to his lodgings 
he was presented by the magistrates with a large 
sum of money and two silver globes of rare 
workmanship. 



122 The Thirty Years' War. 



diopter' X. 



BATTLE OF THE RIVER LECH — DEFEAT AND DEATH OF 
TILLY — DELIVERANCE OF AUGSBURG — SIEGE OF INGOL- 
STADT — GUSTAVUS'S HORSE KILLED UNDER HIM — HE 
LEAVES TO INVADE THE INTERIOR OF BAVARIA — TAKES 
POSSESSION OF MUNICH — MEANWHILE JOHN GEORGE 
INVADES BOHEMIA — PRAGUE IS SURRENDERED WITH- 
OUT A BLOW — THE EMPEROR IS NOW OBLIGED TO RE- 
CALL WALLENSTEIN — HE MAKES HIS OWN TERMS — 
RAISES AN ARMY. 

/ TT*HE King of Sweden was not made for indo- 
■*- lence and luxury. On the 5th of April, 
1632, he lay seige to Donauworth, on the north 
side of the Danube, opposite Bavaria, a town 
which had suffered much from its attachment to 
the reformed religion. It was garrisoned by a 
strong detachment of Bavarian troops, who made 
a strong defense, but could not resist the im- 
petuous onset of the Swedes. It was surren- 
dered, and on Easter-day once more celebrated 



The Thirty Years' War. 123 

the day with Protestant worship, and rejoiced in 
religious freedom. 

Thence it was but a few hours' march to the 
river Lech, the boundary of Bavaria, on the oppo- 
site side of which Tilly was intrenched in a 
strongly fortified camp, protected by three small 
rivers. The Lech was a small river, but at this 
time it was a raging torrent, made so by the 
melting of the snows upon the mountains of 
Tyrol. "Shall we ford this angry stream in face 
of the long row of cannon upon its bank, and 
attempt to scale the enemy's works?" was the 
question in the council of war. Gustavus Horn, 
brave as he was, thought it would be madness. 
But the king, who had hazarded a personal recon- 
noissance of the whole region, and found that the 
ground on his side of the river was higher than 
the ramparts of the enemy, and more favora- 
ble for cannonading, replied, "What! have Ave 
crossed the Baltic and so many great rivers of 
Germany, and shall we now be checked by a 
brook like the Lech?" The bridges had all been 
carried away or destroyed, but protecting his 



124 The Thirty Years' War. 

workmen by the fire of seventy-two cannon, and 
hiding their operations by clouds of smoke from 
burning straw and wood, he threw a bridge across 
the river. The Bavarians, directed by their great 
general, returned his fire with spirit, but from 
a less advantageous position. Their ranks were 
thinned by the showers of balls which swept 
through their camp, one of which struck Tilly 
above the knee and shattered his leg; while 
another soon after struck down his leading gen- 
eral, Albringer. Maximilian, the elector, was pres- 
ent and saw his wounded generalissimo carried 
to the rear. He saw the day was lost, and when 
the night came, orders were given to the army 
to abandon their works and retreat to Neuberg 
and Ingolstadt. This they accomplished in good 
order, bearing their dying general with them. 
The next day Gustavus crossed the bridge with his 
infantry and artillery, while the cavalry found a 
safe ford some distance above. Looking around 
upon the intrenchments, Gustavus was impressed 
with their strength, and wondered that the enemy 
should have abandoned them so soon. "Had I 



The Thirty Years' War. 125 

been the Bavarians," he said, "though a cannon- 
ball had carried away my beard and chin, never 
would I have abandoned a position like this." 

Before pursuing the Bavarians into the heart 
of their country, Gustavus turned back with a 
detachment of his army to deliver Augsburg, the 
city made famous by the Lutheran Confession, 
above a hundred years before. He soon drove 
out the garrison, and restored the Protestant gov- 
ernment and worship. Religious worship was per- 
formed in one of the restored Lutheran churches, 
when his chaplain, Fabricius, preached from 
Psalm xii, 5: "For the oppression of the poor, 
for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, 
saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him 
that purTeth at him." Several days were spent 
in feasts and thanksgivings. 

Gustavus exacted of the magistrates an oath 
of allegiance to himself, not for the war merely, 
as he had required in other cities, but indefinitely. 
He seemed to feel that this old Lutheran town 
was a part of his own kingdom. 

Thence he proceeded to besiege Ingolstadt, 



126 The Thirty Years' War. 

where Maximilian had taken refuge. "Shortly 
after the appearance of the Swedish king be- 
fore Ingoldstadt," writes Schiller, " the wounded 
Tilly, after experiencing the caprice of unstable 
fortune, terminated his career within the Avails of 
that town. Conquered by the superior general- 
ship of Gustavus Adolphus, he lost, at the close 
of his days, all the laurels of his earlier victories, 
and appeased by a series of misfortunes the de- 
mands of justice and the avenging manes of 
Magdeburg. In his death the imperial army and 
that of the league sustained an irreparable loss, 
the Roman Catholic religion was deprived of its 
most zealous defender, and Maximilian of Bavaria 
of the most faithful of his servants, who attested 
his fidelity by his death, and even in his dying 
moments fulfilled the duties of a general. His 
last message to the elector was an urgent advice 
to take possession of Ratisbon, in order to main- 
tain the command of the Danube and to keep 
open the communication with Bohemia." 

Gustavus found the capture of Ingolstadt, with 
its strong fortifications, manned by the flower of 



The Thirty Years' War. 127 

the Bavarian army, a harder task than he ex- 
pected; and, foiled in his first assaults, he turned 
away to invade the interior of the country, hop- 
ing thus to lure Maximilian from his stronghold. 
He came near losing his life at this siege. His 
horse was struck and killed by a cannon-ball, and 
he was thrown to the ground; but, to the joy of 
his troops, he rose up unhurt, and mounted an- 
other horse. The young Margrave of Baden was 
not so fortunate; he was killed by another shot 
directly afterwards. 

Penetrating Bavaria without meeting any for- 
midable resistance, but severely annoyed and tried 
by the fanatical ferocity of its Popish inhabitants, 
who seized and put to torture every soldier that, 
leaving the ranks, happened to become their prey, 
he arrived at Munich, the capital city. A panic 
of fear had preceded him, and the keys of the 
city were sent to him at a distance. He might 
now have avenged the massacre of the inhab- 
itants of Magdeburg and the cruelties inflicted on 
the Palatinate, but he had no such disposition. 
He rode into the city with Frederick, the unfortu- 



128 The Thirty Years' War. 

nate elector and ex-king of Bohemia, at his side, 
and took quarters in the deserted palace of Max- 
imilian. This moment of triumph Providence 
allotted to the prince whose rash acceptance of 
the crown of Bohemia had precipitated the ava- 
lanche of war upon Germany. He might even 
now have had a prospect of recovering his hered- 
itary estates, but for his Calvinistic bigotry against 
the Lutherans, which moved him to deny to the con- 
queror the occupancy during the war, by Swedish 
troops, of the fortresses of his lost electorate, and 
to the Lutherans liberty of worship. Soon after the 
taking of Munich he died of a fever at Bocharach. 
The treasures of Maximilian were carried off, 
all except thirty thousand gold ducats, which 
were found in the mouth of a large cannon. 
Gustavus was informed by a workman that the 
elector had buried the cannons under the floor of 
the arsenal. "Let the dead rise up and come to 
judgment," cried the king; when, lo ! one hun- 
dred and forty pieces of the heaviest kind of 
artillery were brought to light. He levied a 
heavy contribution on the city. 



The Thirty Years' War. 129 

Leaving him here, we inquire what had been 
the fortunes of John George, to whom had been 
assigned the task of conquering Bohemia? The 
same triumph over the enemy was accorded to 
him The emperor had in vain endeavored to 
conciliate him, by ordering his general, Rudolph 
von Tiefenbach, to withdraw the army he had sent 
to invade Saxony; and so nothing hindered hum 
from advancing, after having retaken Leips.c, into 
the heart of Bohemia. Schloekenau, Tetschen, 
Aussig, and Lentmerith were taken as he marched 
to Prague. The moderation of Gustavus did not 
suit the Saxons, and they ravaged every Roman 
Catholic town and village they captured. The 
people of Prague were frightened at their ap- 
proach, and their consternation was increased by 
the departure of Wallenstein and all his court, as 
if he despaired of their making any defense, or 
cared nothing for it. The Roman Catholic no- 
bility and clergy, officers of state and of the army, 
and multitudes of the people, fled in the d.rec- 
tion of Vienna. The magistrates who were left 
hastened to the camp of the Saxons, and nego- 



130 The Thirty Years' War. 

tiated with Field-marshal General Arnheim for the 
surrender of the city. The army marched in tri- 
umph into the city, and the elector, John George 
himself, soon after arrived and received the 
homage of the magistrates and citizens. He was 
aware that he was in the dominions of the king 
and emperor to whom he owed allegiance, and he 
abstained from any proceeding which should too 
much compromise him, and on a turn of the 
fortunes of war subject his own capital, Dresden, 
to retaliation. He even declined to use the im- 
perial palace, and he set a guard of soldiers over 
the establishment of Wallen stein. The Roman 
Catholics were undisturbed in their worship, only 
he took from them four churches, which they had 
wrested from the Protestants. 

The whole country was now at his feet. Count 
Thurn and other Protestant nobles returned from 
their exile, and took possession of their forfeited 
estates, which had been greatly improved and 
enriched in their absence. The churches of the 
Protestants were again crowded with happy wor- 
shipers. Count Thurn busied himself in taking 



The Thirty Years' War. 131 

down from over the bridge the ghastly skeleton 
heads of his murdered accomplices in the revolu- 
tion ; and some of the sufferers in the overthrow 
of the revolution took occasion to avenge them- 
selves upon their enemies. 

Arnheim left Prague to attack Tiefenbach, who 
had intrenched his army near Limburg, on the 
Elbe. In the battle which ensued both sides suf- 
fered heavy losses, but the Saxons prevailed, and 
drove the enemy from their works across the 
Elbe, They withdrew in order, and destroyed 
the bridge after them. 

The emperor now found himself in a great 
dilemma. He had force enough, when con- 
centrated, and money enough, by the assistance 
of Spain; but he had no general of sufficient 
ability to cope with the great Swede. He 
thought at first of taking command of the army 
in person, but duties of state required his pres- 
ence at the capital. He then thought of his son, 
afterwards Ferdinand III; but he was young, and 
his ability to manage a large army was not yet 
tested. 



132 The Thirty Years' War. 

The emissaries of Wallenstein in Vienna clam- 
ored for bis restoration. "Had Wallenstein com- 
manded, matters would never have come to this," 
they exclaimed. The chief minister of State, Prince 
Eggenberg, had always remained the friend of 
Wallenstein, and he was not slow to encourage the 
emperor to think favorably of this matter. 

At length the necessities of the hour broke 
down the pride of the emperor, and he consented 
that overtures should be made to Wallenstein. 
At first this crafty and ambitious genius pretended 
reluctance to enter again the arena of war. He 
declined the invitation of the emperor to come to 
Vienna for consultation; but, to facilitate commu- 
nication, he removed to Znaim, in Moravia. 

The first overtures included the suggestion that 
the young Prince Ferdinand should be associated 
with him in command. "No; never," said the 
proud duke, "will I submit to a colleague in my 
office. No," he added, blasphemously, "not even 
if it were God himself with whom I should have 
to share command !" 

Prince Eggenberg exerted all the powers of 



The Thirty Years' War. 133 

his persuasive eloquence to overcome the seeming 
aversion of Wallenstein to leave his splendid re- 
tirement for the hardships and perils of the camp. 
He acknowledged that he had reason to be indig- 
nant at the treatment he had received; but he 
begged him to "sacrifice his just indignation to 
the good of his country. This victory over him- 
self would crown his other unparalleled services 
to the empire, and render hirn the greatest man 
of his age." He finally yielded so far as to 
accept command for three months, for the pur- 
pose merely of raising an army. 

The fame of this great general immediately 
brought to his standard crowds of mercenaries, 
and money flowed into his treasury from Spain, 
Hungary, and the Austrian provinces. No less 
than forty thousand troops, of all nationalities and 
religions were enlisted before the three months 
had expired. He now resigned; but what save 
the master spirit which had conjured up this 
host could keep them together. Eggenberg of- 
fered, in the name of the emperor, to agree to 

all the conditions on which he had insisted; and 
10 



134 The Thirty Years' War. 

when he still held back the minister changed his 
tone, and demanded his submission to the em- 
peror's requests on pain of his severest displeas- 
ure. He always meant to comply; and now he 
retired to state in writing his conditions. In 
addition to absolute control of the whole army, 
he required for the ordinary payment of his ex- 
penses an imperial hereditary estate, and for the 
extraordinary expenses one of the conquered es- 
tates within the empire. In case of peace being 
made, he required that the Duchy of Mecklen- 
burg should be guaranteed to him. These hard 
terms were conceded; and Wallenstein was in- 
vested with sovereignty in all but the name. 

Ferdinand granted this, doubtless, with the 
mental reservation that, if circumstances should 
warrant it, he would make it null. 



The Thirty Years' War. 135 



CVaptei' XI. 



WALLENSTEIN FAILS TO SEDUCE THE ELECTOR OF SAXONY 
FROM THE SWEDISH ALLIANCE — HE TAKES PRAGUE — 
MAXIMILIAN UNITES WITH HIM — GUSTAVUS PROTECTS 
NUREMBERG — WALLENSTEIN INTRENCHES HIS CAMP, 
AND REFUSES BATTLE — GUSTAVUS IS RE-ENFORCED, 
AND ATTACKS HIS CAMP, BUT WITHOUT SUCCESS — HE 
QUITS THE EXHAUSTED AND INFECTED REGION — WAL- 
LENSTEIN BREAKS UP HIS CAMP ALSO, AND INVADES 
SAXONY — GUSTAVUS PURSUES HIM — MEETS HIS QUEEN 
AT ERFURT — BATTLE AT LUTZEN — HIS DEATH, AND 
THE VICTORY OF HIS ARMY. 

ANEW era was now dawning upon the im- 
perial army. A general capable of com- 
peting with the illustrious Northern king, and 
clothed with dictatorial powers, was now to guide 
its fortunes. Artfully he forebore to advance 
directly into Bohemia for the expulsion of the 
Saxons, that he might make the experiment of 
seducing the elector, John George, from his 
alliance with the Swedes. But this time the 
elector stood firm ; he felt how much he owed to 



136 The Thirty Years' War. 

Gustavus, and he was not ignorant of the perfidy 
of Wallenstein and the emperor. 

Failing in this maneuver, he marched directly 
to Prague, and took it by surprise. He then 
hurried to the mountain passes in Saxony, to cut 
off the retreat of the Saxon army; but Arnheim 
was too quick for him. 

He now received urgent entreaties from Max- 
imilian to come to the rescue of Bavaria from the 
grasp of the victorious Swede. But he remem- 
bered the part Maximilian took in bringing about 
his deposition, and he chose to chastise him now 
by leaving him to his fate for a time. At length 
he moved his army to Egra, in the Upper Pala- 
tinate, where the elector, in order to form a junc- 
tion with him, must leave his territories in his rear 
unprotected. He was further humiliated by being 
obliged to surrender the command of the joint 
army to Wallenstein. In token that their quarrel 
was made up, they met and formally embraced 
in the presence of their troops. Their united 
forces amounted to sixty thousand men, infantry, 
artillery, and cavalry. 



The Thirty Years' War. 137 

The troops of Gustavus were scattered about 
Germany; and, until he could collect them and 
unite with his allies, he was not prepared to en- 
counter the enemy in the field. Finding that Wal- 
lenstein was aiming at Nuremberg, he resolved 
to throw himself into that city, and do his utmost 
to protect it from the fate of Magdeburg. The 
citizens received him with joy, and enthusiastically 
united with his army to provide for the defense 
of the city. Gustavus responded heartily to them. 
"Nuremberg is the apple of my eye," he said, 
"and I will defend it with all my power." 
His whole force, when Wallenstein's vast army 
approached, did not amount to twenty thou- 
sand men. 

Knowing this disparity, Wallenstein, neverthe- 
less, forebore to attack the city, and intrenched 
his army in a strong position about three miles 
from the walls. "Up to this time," he said to 
his officers, "we have had battles enough; I will 
teach the king of Sweden another mode of war- 
fare." His new method was to starve out the 
Swedes; but he was not aware what immense 



138 The Thirty Years' War. 

stores of provisions the careful magistrates had 
collected, and he found that the Swedes were 
better prepared to play this game than he, with 
his sixty thousand men against twenty thousand. 

While waiting in this position, Oxenstiern ar- 
rived with a re-enforcement of ten thousand men 
and sixty pieces of cannon, and Gustavus resolved 
to change the game, and make an assault upon the 
fortified camp of the enemy, seeing he could not 
draw him into the open field. Some decisive 
movement was made the more necessary by the 
accumulation of such immense numbers of men 
and horses requiring food. One hundred and 
twenty thousand soldiers, fifty thousand horses, 
and thirty thousand women and retainers, besides 
the inhabitants of Nuremberg, could not subsist 
many days in that now exhausted territory. 

The battle commenced with a brisk cannonade 
from the Swedish batteries on the banks of the 
river Rednitz, and was answered by the enemy 
from their commanding position on the heights, 
ranging from the Rednitz to the Biber. It was the 
3d of September, the anniversary of the massacre 



The Thirty Years' War. 139 

of St. Bartholomew. Early in the day the king 
gave the order to cross the river., and commence 
the assault. Five hundred chosen men marched on 
through the narrow pass between the rivers swept 
by the fire of a hundred cannons. The five hun- 
dred heroic Germans who braved and met death in 
this volcano, were followed by an equal corps of 
Finlanders, who shared the same fate. Another 
devoted corps took their place, and then a fourth 
and a fifth and a sixth, until a thousand men lay 
prostrate in this valley of death. While this was 
going on, the Swedish cavalry, led by the king 
and Prince Bernhard, of Weimar, were contend- 
ing with the enemy's cavalry on another part of 
the field. Both the king and the prince had a 
horse killed beneath them ; and a cannon-ball 
struck so near the king as to carry away the sole 
of his boot. Night came on and put an end to 
the battle. One of the heights overlooking the 
batteries of the enemy had been taken by the 
Duke of Weimar; but this sole advantage of the 
Swedish army was lost by the heavy rain which 
fell in the night, making it impossible to drag the 



140 The Thirty Years' War. 

artillery up the steep acclivity. The king saw that 
it was impossible to succeed in further assaulting 
such impregnable fortifications, defended by such 
an army, and he ordered a retreat of the whole 
attacking force across the Rednitz. A pleasant 
episode is mentioned by Schiller. "While the 
king was seeking an officer to convey an order to 
retreat, he met Colonel Hepburn, a brave Scotch- 
man, whose native courage alone had drawn him 
from the camp to share in the dangers of the day. 
Offended with the king for having preferred a 
younger officer for some post of danger, he had 
rashly vowed never again to draw his sword for the 
king. To him Gustavus now addressed himself, 
praising his courage and requesting him to order 
the regiments to retreat. 'Sire,' replied the brave 
soldier, 'it is the only service I can not refuse to 
your majesty, for it is a hazardous one;' and im- 
mediately hastened to convey the command." 

Nothing remained now for Gustavus but to 
break up his camp and move off to other prov- 
inces where subsistence could be had for his 
army. The heat of the early September season 



The Thirty Years' War. 141 

was breeding a pestilence from the dead bodies 
of men and horses, which strewed the plain in 
the neighborhood of both of the hostile camps. 
Leaving a sufficient garrison for the protection of 
Nuremberg against surprise, he slowly marched 
his army in front of the enemy, to lure him from 
his stronghold, and took the road toward Wind- 
sheim, in Bavaria. Five days afterward, while 
encamped at a distance from Nuremberg, con- 
venient to return if it were assaulted by Wallen- 
stein, the clouds of smoke rising from his camp 
and from surrounding villages proclaimed that the 
enemy had broken up his camp, and as if to 
spite his disappointment of taking Nuremburg, 
had set on fire also the numerous hamlets in the 
vicinity. This "new mode of warfare" had de- 
pleted his army one-half by sickness and starva- 
tion, and the same proportion of the Swedish 
army had fallen in battle and by pestilence. 

Gustavus had planned to lay siege again to 
Ingolstadt, in Bavaria, the stronghold of Maxi- 
milian; but the ravages of Wallenstein in Saxony, 
whither he had gone, and the appeals of John 



142 The Thirty Years' War. 

George for protection, changed his mind, and he 
hastened in pursuit of Wallenstein, hoping to 
force him to a decisive battle. Every-where in 
Saxony the people come out to greet him as he 
marched at the head of his army. One day a 
little trembling lark, pursued by a bird of prey, 
flew down to the bosom of the king for protec- 
tion. "Poor little bird," said the king, "may 
God protect you." A happy omen, it was thought 
by the people, of the salvation which God had 
given the king to accomplish for them. 

At Erfurt the queen was waiting to greet him. 
In one of the public squares she met him and 
embraced him. The next day, as he was to be 
off with his army, he said to the magistrates: "I 
now confide to your care that which I hold most 
precious upon the earth, the queen, my beloved 
wife. You know, sirs, that every thing in this 
world is subject to vicissitudes, and above all 
war, that scourge which God uses to chastise the 
perversity of men. Just as to any other, some 
misfortune may fall to my lot, perhaps death. 
If such should be the will of God concerning me, 



The Thirty Years' War. 143 

have for my cherished wife the fidelity and devo- 
tion of which you have ever given me proofs." 
To the queen, who was weeping, he said, as he 
gave her a last embrace and kiss: "Be of good 
courage, we shall see each other again; if it may 
not be in this life, it will sooner or later be in the 
abode of eternal blessedness." 

He hurries to Naumburg, and anticipates the 
detachment which Wallenstein had sent from his 
army to capture it. The rejoicing population were 
ready almost to adore him. They pressed to 
touch his garments as he rode through the streets 
at the head of his troops, and cast their garments 
in the way. "This people," said he to his attend- 
ants, "believe me a god! I fear lest God will 
cloud our prosperity, and show them that I am 
only a weak mortal like themselves." 

Strongly intrenched at Naumburg he bade 
defiance to Wallenstein, who brew back and went 
into winter-quarters near Lutzen. But his great 
general of cavalry, the fiery Pappenheim, the 
Marshal Ney of that war, could not brook idle- 
ness; he sought and obtained permission to detach 



144 The Thirty Years' War. 

his corps for the protection, of Cologne. No 
sooner was the news of his departure known to 
Gustavus than he broke up his camp and has- 
tened to offer battle to Wallenstein. He said to 
his escort: "I truly believe that God is giving the 
enemy into my hands." At the first signs of his 
coming messengers were dispatched by Wallen- 
stein to recall Pappenheim, who was not two 
leagues off. He immediately posted his army in 
an advantageous position, on a wide plain be- 
tween Liitzen and the canal which unites the 
Elsten and the Saal. He sent out a body of 
Croats to resist the Swedes as they crossed the 
river Rippoch, but the impetuous advance of the 
Swedes swept them away; and the two armies 
were soon face to face across the high roads, 
along which Wallenstein had the evening before 
the battle deepened the trenches, and on which 
he posted a body of musketeers. In the rear of 
these was a battery of seven large cannons, and 
beyond them, on a height marked by windmills, 
were fourteen smaller pieces commanding the 
plain. The infantry were planted in solid col- 



The Thirty Years' War. 145 

umns fronting the road ; the cavalry covered their 
flanks, and the ammunition-wagons were in the 
rear. As the force of Wallenstein was depleted 
by the detachment of Pappenheim, the sutlers 
and retainers of the camp were mounted on 
horses and posted on the left, to make at least a 
show of strength. 

On his side, the King of Sweden arranged his 
army in two lines; in the first line the infantry 
was in the center and the cavalry on the two 
wings, with the artillery in front. The second 
line, parallel to the first, was formed in the same 
manner, with the reserve corps behind, com- 
manded by Henderson, the Scotch general. The 
king's position was on the right wing; and the 
German cavalry on the left wing was commanded 
by Bernard, Duke of Weimar. Thus arranged, 
the two armies rested during the night. 

In the morning the King of Sweden, after 
passing a whole hour in prayer with his chap- 
lain, met his troops in the usual religious serv- 
ice; the whole army bowed on their knees in 
prayer, and his own battle-hymn was sung. He 



146 The Thirty Years' War. 

then rode along the ranks to hail his troops, and 
inspire them with the enthusiasm which animated 
himself. 

A fog covered the armies, so dense that they 
could not see each other ; but toward eleven 
o'clock it lifted, and the order was given for the 
attack. The battle-cry of the Protestants, uttered 
by the king, was, "God is with us!" of the Cath- 
olics, "Jesus, Maria!" Amidst the fire of the 
enemy's batteries, and in sight of the flames of 
Lu'tzen, which Wallenstein had ordered to be 
burnt to protect his flank, the Swedes rushed 
into the trenches, expelled the musketeers in the 
road, rushed on and took the first line of cannons, 
turned them on the enemy, and put to flight the 
first, second, and third brigades. The practiced 
eye of Wallenstein saw that all was lost if this 
was not arrested. He rushed forward with three 
regiments of horse, and rallied his troops, broke 
the order of the Swedes, recaptured his artillery, 
and drove the foe back into and across the 
trenches. 

While this was going on, the king, on the 



The Thirty Years' War. 147 

right wing, heading his heavy Finnish cuirassiers, 
scattered at the first shock the lighter-armed Poles 
and Croats, and the motley crew of mounted sut- 
lers. At the moment of victory he heard of the 
repulse of the infantry in the center, and also of 
the check given to the left wing by the fire from 
the windmill batteries. Followed by a squadron 
of his cavalry, he flew to the rescue. But his pow- 
erful horse carried him ahead of his troops, and, 
plunging into and over the trenches, brought him al- 
most alone into the midst of his disordered troops. 
Seeking an advantageous point of attack, he came 
too near the enemy's ranks, being near-sighted, 
and not distinctly seeing who they were, when 
a shot from a musket struck and broke his bridle 
arm. A corporal, suspecting that he was a gen- 
eral officer from his bearing, though he had noth- 
ing to distinguish him but a white plume in his 
gray cap, had directed a musketeer to aim at him. 
"That must be a man of consequence," said he, 
"fire on him." 

"The king is wounded; he is shot," cried his 
followers, who had just now come up to him. 



148 The Thirty Years' War. 

"It is nothing," cried the king; "follow me." 
Soon faint from loss of blood, he said in French 
to the Duke of Lauenburg, who had kept up with 
him all the way, "Lead me out of the fray, so 
that none will see my plight." As he was turning 
round to reach his right wing another shot struck 
him in the back. "I have enough, my brother," 
he cried to the duke; "leave me, and save your 
life." Saying this, he fell from his horse, struck by 
several more balls. His young page, Lentelfinger, 
still clung to him, and was mortally wounded by 
a sword in the hands of one of the Croats, but 
lived long enough after the battle to report his 
master's dying words. As he strove to raise him 
up, the cuirassiers who rushed to the spot asked 
who was there. "I was the King of Sweden," 
said the king; whereat one of the company shot 
him through the head. His blood-stained steed, 
flying riderless over the field, proclaimed to the 
army the dreadful news. 

But instead of disheartening his troops, it 
stung them to madness, and the battle was re- 
newed with double rage. The Duke of Weimar, 



The Thirty Years' War. 149 

who had been before designated as leader by 
Adolphus, in the event of this catastrophe, took 
command. The left wing was rallied, and they 
stormed the windmill heights and took the mur- 
derous guns, which had checked the progress 
at the first. The defeated center again rushed 
across the trenches and recaptured the seven 
pieces of artillery. The confusion of the enemy 
was increased by the explosion, at this moment, 
of their powder-wagons, scattering grenades and 
bombs over the field, and impressing the strug- 
gling host with the belief that the Swedes had 
gained their rear. They broke their ranks in 
terror. But at this crisis Pappenheim, with his 
cuirassiers, appeared on the field, and the tide 
of victory was turned back. Wallen stein, amidst 
flying balls, rallied his troops and reformed his 
line. The center of the Swedes, exhausted by 
long fighting, could not withstand this onset of 
fresh forces. They were driven back to the 
trenches, and lost again the artillery they had 
taken. Whole regiments laid down their lives 

upon the field, contending to the last. 
11 



150 The Thirty Years' War. 

The cavalry on the right wing of the Impe- 
rialists was rallying under the inspiring presence 
of Pappenheim, when he was pierced in the 
breast by two bullets and was carried out of 
the battle. They then fell into disorder. The 
Swedes seeing this, crossed the trenches the third 
time, captured again the enemy's batteries, and 
continued fighting with unabated fury until the 
night fell upon them, and put an end to the 
slaughter. Not long after the infantry of Pappen- 
heim reached the scene of conflict, but too late 
to do effectual service, and being without orders, 
they retired in the direction of Leipsic. Thither 
Wallenstein followed them that night, and the 
army on the morrow, leaving their aitillery and 
even their colors on the field of battle, gave 
proof that the victory was on the side of the 
Swedes. 

The glory of the achievement was clouded by 
the death of their great leader. His body was 
found after much search, under a heap of the slain, 
covered with blood and dust, gashed and disfig- 
ured by horses' hoofs, and stripped of all distin- 



The Thirty Years' War. 151 

guishing ornaments and dress. Had he worn his 
armor he might have escaped the fatal bullet, but 
a previous wound made it irksome, and when he 
was advised to put it on, he replied, "The Eter- 
nal One is my armorer." His hour was come, 
his work was done, and the God in whom he 
trusted took him in mercy from the sorrows of 
earth. The Pope pronounced his eulogy when he 
said, "He is the greatest king in the world." 
Even Ferdinand II, when the king's doublet 
stained with blood, was brought to him at Vienna, 
expressed regrets for the sad catastrophe. A large 
rock, near the spot where he fell, is known now 
as the "Rock of the Swedes." His body was 
conveyed to Sweden, and entombed finally in a 
splendid mausoleum, on the top of which, beneath 
the cross, a pelican nourishing her young with 
her own blood, is the symbol of his character. 

A terrible suspicion fell upon Francis Albert, 
Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, of being accessory to 
his death. A box on his ear for committing some 
impropriety in the queen's chamber had made 
them enemies in their youthful days. He had 



152 The Thirty Years' War. 

just quitted the service of the Austrians without 
any good reason, and Oxenstiern had warned the 
king not to be too intimate with him; he stuck 
close to the king during all the battle, and he wore 
a green sash, which was the color of Austrian uni- 
form — all these circumstances in an age, when the 
assassination of Protestant rulers was in vogue, 
led many to suspect him of this crime. But 
Schiller thinks that the perils to which the king 
exposed himself sufficiently accounts for his death, 
and that the maxim applies to this case, "that 
where the ordinary course of things is fully suf- 
ficient to account for the fact, the honor of hu- 
man nature ought not to be stained by a sus- 
picion of moral atrocity." It is evident, from the 
reports of the catastrophe, that whatever the 
unprincipled duke intended to do, it was not his 
shot which brought the king to the ground. 

The imperialists, too, had the grief of losing 
their greatest commander of the horse. Pappen- 
heim was great in the charge and in the heat of 
the battle; but he was not adapted to the man- 
agement of a great army. Two red streaks on 



The Thirty Years' War. 153 

his forehead, like swords, marked him for war 
from his birth. He was wounded at the battle 
of Prague, where he made his first essay at the 
head of a regiment — he lay for hours senseless 
under a heap of the slain. When drawn out and 
revived, he said he had come back from purga- 
tory. He was a sentimental papist. As now he 
lay dying, he said to his attendants, "Tell the 
Duke of Friedland that I die happy, since I know 
that the implacable enemy of my religion has 
fallen on the same day." 



154 The Thirty Years' War. 



dl]kf>tef XII. 



THE ALLIES ASSEMELE FOR CONFERENCE — THEY DECLARE 
THEIR UNITY AND DEVOTION TO THE CAUSE — OXEN- 
STIERN IS APPOINTED CHIEF OF THE ARMIES — EX- 
PLOITS OF THE SWEDISH ARMY IN 1 63 7 — WALLEN- 
STEIN'S AMBIGUOUS CONDUCT — FINALLY MARCHES TO 
MEET THE SWEDISH ARMIES IN SILESIA — HE INVITES 
A CONFERENCE OF ARNHEIM AND THURN AND DIS- 
CLOSES HIS PROJECT OF SETTLEMENT — HE CAPTURES 
THURN WITH HIS WHOLE CORPS — LETS HIM GO — WAL- 
LENSTEIN DECLARED A TRAITOR — HIS CHIEF GARRISON 
• OF PRAGUE DECLARE AGAINST HIM — HE MARCHES TO 
EGER TO JOIN THE SWEDES UNDER BERNHARD — HE IS 
ASSASSINATED. 

'HP* HE work of Gustavus was done. The usur- 
•*■ pations of Ferdinand II were nullified, the 
Edict of Restitution was made void, and the 
Protestant administrations recovered their bish- 
oprics. It was not, however, the will of Divine 
Providence that a northern German Protestant 
confederation, with the King of Sweden as em- 
peror, should be formed. "The establishment of 






The Thirty Years' War. 155 

Protestantism in Europe, as a power safe from 
attack by reason of its own strength, was the 
cause for which he found it worth while to live, 
and for which, besides and beyond the greatness 
of his own Swedish nation, he was ready to die. 
It may be that, after all, he was 'happy in the 
opportunity of his death.'" 

But what now are the allies to do ? Shall they 
make peace or shall they continue the war? The 
grasping spirit of Ferdinand II and the bigotry 
of the League, would not allow of peace with 
them on any advantageous terms, under their 
present ill auspices, their leader and champion 
being dead, and they likely to quarrel among 
themselves. But "God buries his workmen, but 
carries on his work." The Swedish Council, with 
the sage and valiant chancellor at their head, de- 
termined to carry on the war. The young Chris- 
tina was proclaimed queen under the regency 
of her mother. Russia, Denmark, Holland, Eng- 
land, and France declared themselves more than 
ever the friends of Sweden. One man there was 
fitted to take the place of Gustavus — both in coun- 



156 The Thirty Years' War. 

cil and in war. Oxenstiern, next to the queen 
herself, suffered affliction from the death of his 
friend and sovereign; but he rose superior to the 
emergency, and addressed himself to the task of 
restoring confidence to the allies, and enlisting all 
their energies in consummating the enterprises of 
the king. 

The Duke of Friedland, Wallenstein, seems to 
be the only man on the side of the enemy, with 
mind sagacious and liberal enough to see that an 
opportunity was now given to Ferdinand to con- 
ciliate the States of the Empire, by proclaiming a 
universal amnesty and toleration of religion. But 
his advice was disregarded, and renewed efforts 
were made to enlist men for a more vigorous 
prosecution of the war to the bitter end. 

At the instance of Oxenstiern an assembly of 
the four Circles of Swabia, Franconia, and the Up- 
per and Lower Rhine met at Heilbronn for consul- 
tation. Saxony was not represented, for John 
George was not in a mind to be influenced by a 
Swedish nobleman, and he had ambitious notions 
of taking the head of the Protestant States, and 



The Thirty Years' War. 157 

this would not be conceded. His defection grew 
apace, until he went over altogether to the em- 
peror, and was denounced by his former confed- 
erates as a traitor to his country and his religion. 
There were present deputies of twelve cities — 
nobles, doctors, and the embassadors of France, 
England, and Holland. 

Oxenstiern was the presiding genius — he opened 
the convention and directed all its deliberations; 
a task which was made difficult by the diverse 
interests of the different States and the German 
prolixity of discussion. They did not second 
his views for a formal declaration of war, be- 
cause it was superfluous; and they had warm dis- 
putes about the quota which the respective States 
should furnish for the maintenance of the army; 
but they declared their unalterable union, and 
with prompt unanimity devolved upon the Chan- 
cellor the supreme command of the army. Two 
millions and a half annually were voted for the 
expenses of the war. The German estates were 
gratified by the surrender to the heirs of the late 
unfortunate Elector Frederick the whole of the 



158 The Thirty Years' War. 

Palatinate which Gustavus had recovered, except 
Manheim, which was to be held by the Swedes 
as security for the payment of war expenses. 
Oxenstiem also felt obliged to reaffirm the prom- 
ises made by the king to the Landgrave of Hesse, 
to Duke Bernard of Weimar, and to the Duke of 
Wiirtemberg, to make over to them certain cov- 
eted territories which he expected to conquer. 

The victorious army of Liitzen, under its new 
leader, strengthened by the troops of Saxony and 
Lunenburg, drove the enemy entirely out of Sax- 
ony. They then divided : the Saxons marched 
against the Austrian army engaged with Count 
Thurn; the Duke of Brunswick led a portion of 
the Swedish, army in Westphalia and Lower Sax- 
ony; and the Duke of Weimar, a larger portion 
into Westphalia and Lower Saxony. He was 
afterward called to unite with Generals Horn and 
Bauner, and the Rhinegrave Otto Louis, to main- 
tain, against the Bavarians led by Aldringer, the 
positions on the Danube and Lech which Gusta- 
vus had conquered. They proved more than a 
match for the enemy, and would have penetrated 



The Thirty Years' War. 159 

into Bavaria; but a mutiny broke out in the army 
on account of the long arrears in their pay. The 
Duke of Weimar at length succeeded in allaying 
the excitement; but he took good care to feather 
his own nest by securing the Bishoprics of Wurtz- 
burg and Bamberg. Large estates, and five mill- 
ions of dollars, were distributed among the officers. 
After these disgraceful scenes the army again 
divided. Gustavus Horn marched to the relief 
of Wurtemberg, threatened by the imperialists; 
and thence to the Danube, to meet a new force 
of fourteen thousand Italians under the Spanish 
Duke of Feria, with whom Aldringer united his 
Bavarian army. Horn, too, was re -enforced by 
the Palsgrave of Birkenfeld, and had command of 
thirty thousand troops. The enemy crossed the 
Danube into Swabia, and when Horn drew near 
and offered them battle they evaded it, and passed 
by the Black Forest towards Alsace to encounter 
Otto Louis, who had been achieving victories in 
the Palatinate, and even over the Duke of Lor- 
raine. They were driving him before them when 
Horn came up; and they were forced to retreat 



160 The Thirty Years' War. 

with great loss, aggravated by the extreme sever- 
ity of the Autumnal cold and storms. The Duke 
of Feria is said to have died of grief at the failure 
of the enterprise. 

The Duke of Weimar, meanwhile, finding that 
Aldringer had departed, crossed the Danube, and 
with forced marches came down upon the strong- 
hold of Ratisbon and laid siege to it. The elector, 
greatly surprised and alarmed, sent immediately 
pressing word to Wallenstein to come to the 
rescue. He promised to send twelve thousand 
men under Gallas, but failed to do so; and the 
commander of the garrison, despairing at length 
of help, was obliged to capitulate. Bernard 
thence marched southward, with the view of in- 
vading Austria. He reached and crossed the 
Iser; and having threatened Passau and Lauturn, 
frightened the emperor, and even roused the pur- 
posely inert Wallenstein to come to the rescue, 
he prudently halted, recrossed the Iser, returned 
to Ratisbon, and went into Winter-quarters in the 
enemy's territory. 

In Lower Saxony and Westphalia the Swedish 



The Thirty Years' War. 161 

arms were also triumphant. Duke George of 
Lunenburg took the fortress of Hamel, and gained 
a splendid victory over the imperial army under 
General Gronsfeld, near Aldendorf, taking sixteen 
cannons and seventy -four banners, and taking 
three thousand prisoners, while as many more 
were slain in battle. 

Such were the successes of the armies of Gus- 
tavus the first year after his death. But where 
all this time was his great antagonist, Wallen- 
stein ? After the battle of Liitzen he remained 
quiet in Bohemia, careless of any measures or 
opportunities to retrieve the reputation lost by his 
defeat. He called court-martials upon the officers 
who had behaved badly, and had them shot, 
while he rewarded the brave with splendid pres- 
ents and tokens of regard. At length, in the 
Spring of 1633, he moved his army into Silesia, 
where three of the Swedish divisions had held 
sway, under the direction of Arnheim, Count 
Thurn, and Bergendorf. His entire force was 
not less than forty thousand men. Though the 
allies numbered but three -fifths as many, with 



1 62 The Thirty Years' War. 

greater courage than prudence, they resolved to 
beard the lion in his intrenched camp at Mun- 
sterburg. To let them know that he was superior 
in numbers, he moved out of his intrenchments 
and passed in review before their camp; but yet 
he declined battle. Further to indicate that he 
had other motives than fear for his strange course, 
he put to death the commander of a castle for 
presuming to hold out for a short time against his 
overwhelming force. 

Very soon the secret was made clear to the 
allies by a trumpeter inviting Arnheim to a con- 
ference. He proposed an armistice of six weeks, 
to accomplish his plan. "He was come," he 
said to Arnheim, "to conclude a lasting peace 
with the Swedes and with the princes of the em- 
pire, to pay the soldiers, and to satisfy every one. 
All this was in his power; and if the Austrian 
Court hesitated to confirm his agreement he would 
unite with the allies and 'hunt the emperor to the 
devil.'" To Count Thurn, at a subsequent con- 
ference, he said: "All the privileges of the Bo- 
hemians should be confirmed anew, the exiles 



The Thirty Years' War. 163 

recalled and restored to their estates; and he 
himself would be the first to resign his share of 
them. The Jesuits, as the authors of all past 
grievances, should be banished, the Swedish crown 
indemnified by stated payments, and all super- 
fluous troops on both sides should be employed 
against the Turks. If he should obtain the crown 
of Bohemia, all the exiles would have reason to 
applaud his generosity; perfect toleration of all 
religions should be established within the king- 
dom, the Palatine family be reinstated in its 
rights, and he would accept the Margravate of 
Moravia as a compensation for Mecklenburg. 
The allied armies would then under his command 
advance upon Vienna, and, sword in hand, com- 
pel the emperor to ratify the treaty." 

At the Court of Ferdinand the strongest sus- 
picions were inferred, from his course of conduct, 
that he was meditating mischief. But what could 
the emperor do? He had engaged not to place 
any other general over him, and to dismiss him 
again seemed not to be so easy. It was deter- 
mined to raise a Spanish army, over which he, 



164 The Thirty Years' War. 

as a German general, could not pretend to have 
control. When this army was chiefly raised in 
Italy, he saw what it meant, and protested against 
it; but in vain. He had made overtures to France 
through the French embassador at Dresden, to 
obtain the approval of that government of his 
scheme of pacification and settlement, which met 
with a cordial response. Any thing to humble 
Austria suited France. The embassador, however, 
communicated with Oxenstiern on the subject, and 
they agreed that he could not be trusted; that 
it might be he was luring them into a snare. 
Even Arnheim, who at first was favorably im- 
pressed, was compelled by his contradictory con- 
duct to agree with them. 

Vexed by this show of contempt for his scheme, 
he changed his tactics, and sought to strike a blow 
which should convince them that he could execute 
his projects, and that they would better fall in 
with them. A report was started that Picco- 
lomini, his second in command, was about to 
invade Saxony; and Arnheim, to thwart this 
movement, separated his division from the army 



The Thirty Years' War. 165 

and pursued after him, leaving Count Thurn en- 
camped at Steinau, on the Oder. Suddenly Wal- 
lenstein turned towards the Oder and surprised 
the Swedish army by his approach. The cavalry 
sent out to meet him were driven back, and the 
camp, numbering only twenty-five hundred men, 
was surrounded by twenty thousand. Resistance 
was useless; Thurn surrendered, and, with all his 
his officers and men, was taken prisoner. Great 
was the rejoicing at Vienna that this arch-rebel 
was at last captured. But Wallenstein set him at 
liberty, partly to spite the Jesuits and his own 
personal enemies at court, but chiefly because it 
would not do to send to Vienna the man who had 
been intrusted with his designs. When it was 
demanded of him why he had done this, he 
replied: "What should I have done with this 
madman? Would to heaven the enemy had no 
generals but such as he. At the head of the 
Swedish army he will render us much better 
service than in prison." 

After this he captured Leignitz, Grossglogan, 
and Frankfort, on the Oder. His generals cap- 



1 66 The Thirty Years' War. 

tured Landsberg, the key of Pomerania, while he 
turned into Lusatia, captured Goerlitz and Baut; 
zen, and threatened Saxony with invasion. But 
the conquests of Bernard of Weimar along the 
Danube constrained him at last to yield to the 
entreaties of the Elector of Bavaria to come to 
his aid. He did nothing but recapture from the 
Swedes the town of Cham, for, hearing that the 
Saxons were about to invade Bohemia, he turned 
aside and remained there, on the plea that Bo- 
hemia was the emperor's hereditary estate. 

The emperor's patience was now exhausted, 
and he determined to deprive him once more 
of his command. The Elector of Bavaria threat- 
ened that he would make common cause with the 
Swedes if this was not done. Intimations of it 
were given to Wallenstein by positive orders from 
Ferdinand II to one of his subordinate generals 
to join Maximilian without delay, and to himself 
to dispatch re-enforcements to the Spanish army 
now approaching from Italy. Something must 
now be done to maintain his position and execute 
his purpose. He takes measures to ascertain the 



The Thirty Years' War. 167 

views of his officers and to secure the devotion 
of his soldiers. 

Colonels Knisky and Terzky, his relatives, and 
Colonel Illo had long been initiated into his 
schemes. He now tries Count Piccolomini, whom 
he had specially honored and loved, not only on 
account of his bravery, but because they were 
born under the same conjunction of the stars. 
Piccolomini dissembled the astonishment he felt 
at his treason, and suggested the dangers of 
such an enterprise. Wallenstein laughed at his 
fears. "In such an enterprise," he said, "nothing 
was difficult but the commencement. The stars 
were propitious to him, the opportunity the best 
that could be wished for. and something must be 
trusted to fortune. His resolution was taken, and 
if it could not be otherwise, he would encoun- 
ter the hazard at the head of a thousand horse." 
Piccolomini immediately forwarded to Vienna an 
account of the disclosures which had been made 
to him. 

Soon after, in January, 1634, he called a con- 
ference of his officers at Pilsau, on pretense of 



1 68 The Thirty Years' War. 

consulting them on new orders of the emperor in 
respect to the detachments from his army, and 
also in regard to the siege of Ratisbon, which was 
ordered to take place that Winter. Three leading 
officers were not present, Gallas, Callerode, and 
Aldringer — for what reason did not appear. He 
intrusted to Field-marshal Illo, a man of great 
address, and wholly devoted to him, the difficult 
task of making known his designs. The point he 
was to gain was that they should refuse their con- 
sent to the dismissal of the general. He showed 
by the new orders that thus was intended, and 
that it was the work of the Spaniards, who were 
ever domineering, in concert with the Jesuits, 
even the mind and councils of the emperor. He 
declared that the great general to whom they 
owed so much would resign before such a second 
disgrace should come upon him; and this he had 
authority to inform them of. The result was a 
unanimous, spontaneous outcry against it. A com- 
mittee was sent to entreat him not to do it. He 
showed reluctance to comply with their request. 
A second deputation was made with more earnest 



The Thirty Years' War. 169 

entreaties. He finally agreed not to quit the 
service, provided they would adhere to him to the 
last extremity. A written covenant was drawn 
up, and as it included the proviso, "as long as 
Wallenstein shall employ the ar?ny in the emperor's 
service" no one hesitated to approve of it. 

The next step was to invite them all to an 
entertainment, where Illo arranged to have them 
sign it; but he had struck out of the copy the 
conservative clause. When they came to sign it 
they were so muddled with wine that many did 
not notice the omission. Some refused at first, 
but at last all signed, Piccolomini with the rest. 

The next day Wallenstein met them, and com- 
plained of the conduct of those who had shown 
hesitation to come up to their first agreements, and 
had signed so obscurely that their writing was 
not legible. They withdrew for consultation, and 
returned to apologize and to sign all anew. He 
now sent fresh orders to the absent generals to 
make an appearance without delay. Aldringer 
pretended sickness, and Gallas came solely for the 
purpose of being a spy upon his proceedings. 



170 The Thirty Years' War. 

He received from the emperor a patent commis- 
sion to take command of the army, and he was 
ordered to convey to certain officers a positive 
order to sieze the person of Wallenstein and hold 
him for trial. That was, indeed, a dangerous 
commission to receive in the camp of the great 
traitor, and in a city devoted to him. Accord- 
ingly, he offered to go after Aldringer, which so 
pleased Wallenstein that he dispatched him in his 
own carriage. Instead of executing his commis- 
sion he sent Aldringer at once to Vienna to carry 
full information of all that had happened. As 
Gallas did not return, Piccolomini begged to go 
after him; and, strange to relate! he too was 
allowed to depart; and, indeed, was conveyed by 
the general as far as Lintz in his own carriage. 
The eyes of Wallenstein were soon opened by 
placards circulated by Gallas all over the country 
occupied by the imperial troops, denouncing him 
as a traitor. 

He now issued orders to all the troops under 
his command to march to Prague, where he in- 
tended to proclaim his objects; and thence to 



The Thirty Years' War. 171 

make an irruption into Austria, in concert with 
the Duke of Weimar, who had already agreed to 
support him in his conspiracy by a diversion on 
the Danube. 

Colonel Terzky's regiment was making its 
advance towards Prague when he received intelli- 
gence that the garrison there had declared for the 
emperor, and he retreated to Pilsen. "I had 
peace in my hands," exclaimed Wallenstein, "but 
God is righteous." 

With the troops that were under his immediate 
command, and were attached to him and his for- 
tunes, he marched to Eger, where he would be in 
a position to unite with the Swedes under Ber- 
nard. Oxenstiern had now no hesitation to make 
alliance with him, and the Duke of Lauenburg 
was sent with four thousand men to make con- 
nection with him. On his way to Eger one of his 
attendants advised him, probably in a half se- 
rious and half jocular tone, to "take forty thou- 
sand men at arms (that is, forty thousand ducats 
stamped with an armed man), and advance to 
Vienna and make peace with the emperor, who 



172 The Thirty Years' War. 

could not resist such a force!" "The advice is 
good," replied Wallenstein, in the same vein, "but 
let the devil trust it." He believed, that in the 
army of the Swedes he would find a place to pun- 
ish the emperor and to secure the object of his 
ambition. But the decree of outlawry against 
him was taking its effect, on the way to Eger, in 
the mind of one Leslie, a Scotch officer in his 
army, who, immediately on their arrival, commu- 
nicated the treason of the general and his out- 
lawry to Colonel Butler, an Irish papist, who was 
commandant of the town, and to his lieutenant, 
Gordon, a Scotchman. They acknowledged their 
superior duty to the emperor, and determined to 
make Wallenstein prisoner and deliver him up to 
justice. In perfect confidence the general com- 
municated to Leslie his inmost feelings of mingled 
grief and wrath for the course of the emperor, the 
intentions he had of combining with the Swedes 
in the war against him, and the fact that Duke 
Bernard was already on their march to take pos- 
session of Eger. The three conspirators, there- 
fore, agreed that they must make haste; and, 



The Thirty Years' War. 173 

furthermore they must not merely seize the person 
of Wallenstein, but take his life. 

Accordingly, a banquet was prepared that 
evening in the castle by Butler, to which Wallen- 
stein and his officers were invited. But Wallen- 
stein was not in a condition of mind to enjoy 
such festivities; and he declined the invitation 
and withdrew to his private quarters for rest and 
sleep. The plan must be changed; the special 
friends of Wallenstein must be killed at the ban- 
quet, and an assassin must be sent to surprise 
him at his rooms. A sufficient number of the 
soldiers of the garrison were intrusted with the 
plot and admitted to the castle, six of whom were 
concealed in a room near the banquet-hall. 

Illo, Terzky, Knisky, and Captain Newman 
were at the table, without any suspicion of evil 
intent. As the wine cup circulated, they talked 
glibly of their expectation of the coming of the 
Swedes to join them, toasted their general, and 
boasted that he would no longer be a servant, 
but a sovereign. As the dessert was brought in 
Leslie gave the signal ; instantly armed men 



174 The Thirty Years' War. 

rushed in, with cries of, "Long live Ferdinand!" 
Knisky and Terzky were instantly killed. Illo 
was too quick for them. Putting his back to a 
window, he defended himself and killed two of 
the assassins; but at last was cut down. New- 
man escaped from the room, but was seized in 
the court of the castle and killed. 

Having taken measures to guard the town 
from insurrection, the three conspirators consulted 
what to do with Wallenstein; but, heated with 
the bloody strife at the banquet, they were not 
long in deciding to adhere to their last purpose 
of putting him to death. An Irish captain, 
Devereux, who had given his adherence to the 
plot, was ordered to proceed to the residence of 
Wallenstein and execute the deed. 

That evening Seni, the astrologer, was visiting 
Wallenstein, and talking of the omens of the 
stars. "The danger is not yet over," said Seni. 
"It is," replied the duke; "but that thou, friend 
Seni, thyself, shalt soon be thrown into prison, is 
also written in the stars." The astrologer had not 
long left when Devereux, with six soldiers, ap- 




Assassination of Wallenstein. 



Face page 175. 



The Thirty Years' War. 175 

peared at the door of the house. They were at 
once admitted by the guard, who were in the 
habit of seeing the captain go in and out at all 
times. A page on the stairs was about giving an 
alarm, and was pierced with a pike. At the ante- 
chamber a servant was just leaving the room, and 
locking the door after him. In an instant they 
rushed against the door and burst it open. Wal- 
lenstein was standing in his undress by the win- 
dow, having been awakened by an accidental 
discharge of a musket in the street, and also by 
wild outcries from the wives of Terzky and Knisky. 
"Art thou the villain," cried Devereux, "who 
intends to deliver up the emperor's troops to their 
enemy, and to tear the crown from his majesty's 
head? Now thou must die." Overcome by his 
emotions, Wallenstein stood for a moment in si- 
lence; then, stretching out his arms, he opened 
his breast to the deadly thrusts of seven pikes, 
fell to the floor, and died without a groan. 



176 The Thirty Years' War. 



Cfyhptef XIII. 



CHARACTER OF WALLENSTEIN — THE EMPEROR'S SON IS 

MADE GENERALISSIMO — BATTLE OF NORDLINGEN 

ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE — DEFECTION OF SAXONY — 
TREATY OF PRAGUE — ITS TERMS AND FFFECTS — FRANCE 
PROCLAIMS WAR — SPANIARDS INVADE FRANCE FROM 
THE NETHERLANDS— THE NATION RISES AND DRIVES 
THEM BACK — VICTORIES OF BAUNER IN GERMANY OVER 
THE SAXONS AND IMPERIALISTS — DUKE BERNARD'S 
VICTORIES AND DEATH. 

\ T 7ALLENSTEIN was fifty years of age at 
* * his death. His history has been written 
by friends and enemies in opposite strains of 
eulogy and defamation, so that it is not easy to 
make a just estimate of his character. It is evi- 
dent that he was excessively ambitious and self- 
seeking, and without those kind and gentle traits 
which in Gustavus Adolphus won the personal 
affection of all his attendants. His views of 
public policy were liberal and wise beyond his 
times. Had his ideas of unity and religious 



The Thirty Years' War. 177 

toleration been followed, it would have been the 
salvation of Germany. As a military genius, he 
had no superiors. By strict discipline, and by 
generous rewards of merit, he secured instant 
obedience from his troops. On his making an 
order once that his soldiers should wear red 
sashes, a captain of cavalry tore off his gold em- 
broidered sash and trampled it under his feet. 
Walienstein instantly sent him the commission of a 
colonel. A soldier was seized by him and ordered 
to be hung for depredations. The soldier pro- 
tested his innocence. ''Hang the innocent, and 
the guilty will tremble all the more," exclaimed 
the general. The soldier sprang upon the judge 
giving sentence, to wreak his vengeance on him, 
when he was at once disarmed by the bystanders. 
"Now let him go," interposed the general; "it 
will excite sufficient terror." The Germans ever 
mention the name of Walienstein with affection 
and reverence; and Schiller's immortal dramas, 
as well as his "Thirty Years' War," keep him in 
perpetual remembrance. 

He was of large form, severe countenance, 



178 The Thirty Years' War. 

with fiery black eyes, and a demeanor distant 
and imperious. Pie was born to be a king of 
men; and if the Swedes had accepted his over- 
tures, and assisted in making him King of Bohe- 
mia, it would have been better for all concerned. 
His first wife died not long after marriage, and his 
second wife mourned his death with genuine sor- 
row. He was buried in the Carthusian monastery 
which he had founded at Gitschin. He made no 
pretense of personal religion. He believed more 
in astrology than in revelation, and the stars have 
shed no light upon his eternal future. 

After Wallenstein's death the emperor's son, 
Ferdinand, King of Hungary, was put at the 
head of the army; and Gallas was made his lieu- 
tenant, with the practical control. Their first 
essay was the siege of Ratisbon, which was soon 
forced to capitulate; and soon after Donauworth 
shared the same fate. They next laid siege to 
Nordlingen, in Swabia. The Swedish army, un- 
der Horn and Bernard of Weimar, marched to 
relieve it. Horn doubted the propriety of the 
attempt, as they had an inferior force, and the 



The Thirty Years' War. 179 

enemy, he learned, was soon to be reduced by- 
orders to the cardinal -infanta who commanded 
the Italian division to depart to the Netherlands; 
but the impetuous Bernard overruled his discre- 
tion, and battle was resolved upon. The point 
of attack was a hill which overlooked the imperial 
camp. As night set in the Swedes marched 
through the woods, and with great difficulty 
dragged the cannon to the foot of the hill; but 
before they could arrive the enemy had taken 
possession. Nevertheless, at break of day the 
order was given to storm the heights. The in- 
trenchments, being in the form of a crescent, 
were reached from opposite sides, and in the 
impetuosity of the attack the separate storming 
parties came into collision. Confusion ensued, 
which was increased by the explosion of a barrel 
of gunpowder. At this moment the cavalry of 
the enemy rushed upon them and drove them 
off the heights. Another attempt was made. 
Seven times the grand regiment of Bernard scaled 
the Kill, to be rolled back again, while the fire 
of the cannon from the fort scattered death over 



180 The Thirty Years' War. 

the Swedish ranks, where Horn was waiting for 
the signal to advance. The rush of the defeated 
cavalry back upon them broke their ranks ; and 
the whole army retreated in disorder, with the 
loss of sixteen thousand men, killed, and taken- 
prisoners, and nearly all their cannons, baggage- 
wagons, and colors. Horn himself was taken 
prisoner, and Bernard with difficulty escaped 
with the remnant of his army to Frankfort. This 
battle was fought September 6, 1634. 

The victory of the imperialists was as great as 
that of Gustavus over Tilly at Leipsic, and the 
consequences were equally momentous. Indeed, 
the whole of South Germany, with the exception 
of a few fortified towns, before Spring, was cap- 
tured by the imperial troops. Indeed, the cause 
was lost, unless the princes of Upper Germany 
could make alliance with foreign nations, and roll 
back the tide of conquest and invasion. 

Oxenstiern now saw that the time had come 
to accept the overtures of Richelieu, and secure 
the support of France. He had hesitated to make 
common cause with a government which had in 



The Thirty Years' War. 181 

France persecuted and trodden down the Hugue- 
nots; but unless the labors of a sixteen years' 
campaign should be utterly lost, it must be done. 
France had no interest in the war but to humble 
her old rivals, the Austrians and the Spaniards, 
and to enlarge her own boundaries to the Rhine. 
The embassadors of the princes of North Germany 
now urged Richelieu to take possession of Alsace, 
the fortress of Breyssach, and the region on the 
Upper Rhine. This giving up of the keys of Ger- 
many to a Catholic power would not have been 
necessary had the German Protestants been united, 
and after their long trials and sufferings in war 
had resolved to stand to the death or victory. 
But John George of Saxony, the chief of the 
Protestant princes, could hold out no longer, and 
his defection was considered a greater disaster to 
the cause than the battle of Nordlingen. It is 
true that Saxony had been worse ravaged than 
any other part of Germany, where all had suf- 
fered by the marches and robberies and blood- 
shed of the contending hosts. All sighed amidst 
their wasted fields and burnt villages and mur- 



1 82 The Thirty Years' War. 

dered families, for a peace on almost any 
terms. 

Negotiations for peace were entered into by 
the representatives of John George and Ferdinand 
II at Prague, to which the German States and the 
Swedes were invited, but they did not accept the 
invitation. The Edict of Restitution came under 
consideration at the outset. It was not formally 
but virtually rescinded by the emperor, by the 
agreement that the bishoprics in dispute should 
remain for forty years in the same condition as 
before it was issued; and in the mean time a 
commission, composed of representatives of the 
Catholics and Protestants, should permanently 
fix their status. But the Bishopric of Halberstadt 
should remain in possession of the Catholics, 
and Magdeburg in the hands of Prince Augustus 
of Saxony. "Four estates were taken from the 
territories of Magdeburg and given to Saxony, for 
which the administrators were to be otherwise 
indemnified. The Dukes of Mecklenburg were 
to retain their territories. Donauworth received 
its liberties. The claims of the Palatinate were 



The Thirty Years' War. 183 

passed over, on account of the quarrels of the 
Lutherans and the Calvinists. All the conquests 
made by the German States or by the emperor 
were to be restored. All which had been appro- 
priated by France or Sweden were to be forcibly 
wrested from them. The troops of both parties 
were to form an army." * 

Lusatia, by a special treaty, was to be ceded 
to the Elector of Saxony, and its religious free- 
dom and that of Silesia guaranteed. 

The states represented at the Conference of 
Heilbronn were excepted from the benefits of 
this treaty. The "Landgrave of Hesse Cassel 
was shut out as a Calvinist." 

The effect of all this is described by Gardiner 
as follows: "The ideal of Ferdinand and Max- 
imilian was gone. The Church was not to re- 
cover its lost property; the empire was not to 
recover its lost dignity. The ideal of Gustavus 
of a Protestant political body was equally gone. 
Even the ideal of Wallenstein, that unity might 



*See Schiller's "Thirty Years' War," p. 302. 



184 The Thirty Years' War. 

be founded on an army, had vanished. From 
henceforth French and Swedes on the one side, 
Austrians and Spaniards on the other, were busily 
engaged in riving at the corpse of the dead em- 
pire. The great quarrel of principle had merged 
into a mere quarrel between the houses of Austria 
and Bourbon, in which the shred of principle, 
which still remained in the question of the rights 
of the southern Protestants, was almost entirely 
disregarded." 

The treaty of Prague was signed by the envoys 
of the emperor and the Elector of Saxony on the 
30th of May, 1635. Fifteen days before this a 
French herald appeared in Brussels and made a 
declaration of war. The plan was to send an 
army to expel the Spaniards from Italy, while 
another army was to defend Lorraine, and Ber- 
nard of Saxe Weimar was to land a division 
across the Rhine into Germany. A junction of 
French troops was to be made with the Dutch 
army under the Prince of Orange, and invade 
the Spanish Netherlands. This latter movement 
proved ineffectual, and Bernard was compelled 



The Thirty Years' War. 185 

to retreat. The next year, 1636, the Cardinal-In- 
fanta, at the head of the Spanish troops from Neth- 
erlands, invaded France, captured Corbie, and 
threatened to advance to the capital. The nation 
was alarmed, the whole people, Catholic and Prot- 
estant, were roused to action, and an immense 
arming took place. The Spaniards deemed it pru- 
dent to retrace their steps. They were followed 
by the King of France, Louis XIII, at the head 
of an irresistible force, which, after a vigorous 
siege, retook Corbie and expelled the Spaniards 
from the French territory. 

The tide of victory turned also in Germany. 
General Bauner, commanding the Swedish army 
to counteract the movements of the Saxons tow- 
ards Mecklenburg to lay siege to Domitz, sud- 
denly threw himself in the way, and, in a pitched 
battle with General Badissin, gained a decisive 
victory. He afterwards made an invasion of the 
Electorate of Saxony, and severely punished John 
George for his base desertion of the Swedish 
cause. The elector finally, assisted by the impe- 
rial army under General Hatzfeld, marched to 



1 86 The Thirty Years' War. 

meet him at Wittstock; and a great battle was 
fought. The right wing of the Swedes, under 
the immediate command of Bauner, was first 
attacked. Ten times his squadrons repelled the 
enemy, but were compelled, towards night, to 
retire from the field, when the left wing took its 
place in the battle, and fought until night closed 
in, ready to renew the fight in the morning. But 
the elector had withdrawn in the night, leaving 
five thousand dead on the field, with twenty-three 
pieces of artillery, which could not be carried off 
on account of the flight of the drivers with the 
horses. One hundred and fifty standards, all 
the baggage-wagons, the silver plate of the elec- 
tor, and two thousand prisoners were captured. 
General Bauner then followed the enemy across 
the Elbe and as far as Westphalia, and then, 
returning, quartered his troops over the Winter in 
Saxony. 

Let us now return to Duke Bernard. Early in 
the year 1638, as a general of the French, he 
suddenly appeared on the Rhine, and laid siege to 
the important town of Rheinfelden. He was 



The Thirty Years' War. 187 

attacked by the imperialists under the Duke of 
Savelli, and forced to raise the siege. But in three 
days after, to the surprise of the enemy, he re- 
appeared, and a bloody battle took place, in 
which he gained a complete victory, capturing 
four generals, including Savelli himself, and two 
thousand other prisoners. Rheinfelden now fell 
into his hands, and also Roteln and Freiburg. 

He now sets himself to conquer Breysach, a 
strongly fortified place, holding the keys of Al- 
sace and the command of the Rhine. The place 
was really impregnable, and could only be sub- 
dued by starvation. The imperial army of Gen- 
eral Goetz, consisting of twelve thousand troops, 
and escorting three thousand wagons, laden with 
provisions, hastened to its relief. The duke met 
them at Wittemeyer, and gained a decisive vic- 
tory, capturing or killing nine thousand men, and 
taking possession of all their baggage-wagons. 
The Duke of Lorraine next advanced to break up 
the siege, but he too was met on the way and 
vanquished. Again Goetz made an abortive at- 
tempt to relieve the now starving garrison ; which, 



1 88 The Thirty Years' War. 

after holding out four months, was obliged to 
capitulate. 

Elated by his amazing success, Bernard claimed 
Breisach as his own possession, and required the 
homage of its citizens to himself as sovereign, and 
celebrated a thanksgiving in the cathedral with 
Lutheran services. He was aware that this would 
provoke the hostility of France, which had no no- 
tion of an independent German principality in 
Alsace. "I will never suffer," he proudly re- 
plied, "that men can truly reproach me with 
being the first to dismember the empire." 

Cardinal Richelieu was deeply chagrined by 
this conduct. Having, in vain, invited Bernard 
to Paris to celebrate his victories in the Notre 
Dame, and even offered him the hand of his 
niece in marriage, he now denounced him as an 
enemy to France. Nothing daunted, he was pre- 
paring to cross the Rhine and join Bauner, who 
was about advancing into Bohemia, when a pesti- 
lence broke out in' his camp, and he, together 
with four hundred of his soldiers fell a victim to it. 
He died at the age of thirty-six, July, 1639. He 



The Thirty Years' War. 189 

proved himself the greatest general of the Prot- 
estant army after Gustavus. He was never mar- 
ried. He had expected the hand of Amelia, the 
accomplished and brave widow of William, Land- 
grave of Hesse; but his sudden death, in the 
flower of his manhood, put an end to all his 
ambitions. French gold bought up the officers 
of the garrison at Breisach, and Alsace became a 
French province. 



190 The Thirty Years' War. 



dilkptef XIV. 



FERDINAND II DIES AND IS SUCCEEDED BY HIS SON, FERDI- 
NAND- III — HIS TRUSTED SECRETARY — BAUNER'S MAS- 
TERLY RETREAT — HE INVADES BOHEMIA — RETREATS — 
THREATENS RATISBON, WHERE FERDINAND III IS HOLD- 
ING A DIET — DESIGNS TO INVADE BOHEMIA AGAIN, 
BUT THE FRENCH ARMY LEAVES HIM — HIS DEATH — 
TORSTENSON SUCCEEDS HIM AS GENERALISSIMO — HE 
CHANGES THE SCENE OF WAR — INVADES SILESIA AND 
MORAVIA — HE IS MET BY A SUPERIOR FORCE UNDER 
LEOPOLD AND PICCOLOMINI AND RETREATS — WRANGEL 
JOINS HIM, AND THEY DRIVE THE ENEMY BEFORE 
THEM— DEFEATS THEM BEFORE LEIPSIC AND TAKES 
THE CITY. 

FERDINAND II, chief cause of the thirty 
years' war, died February, 1637, aged fifty- 
eight, and was succeeded by his son Ferdinand, 
King of Hungary and Rome, under the title of 
Ferdinand III. The policy of the father was be- 
queathed with his crown to the son, and the war 
went on for eleven years more. He was, how- 
ever, more independent of the Jesuits, and by his 



The Thirty Years' War. 191 

observations on the miseries which war had en- 
tailed on Europe, better prepared to yield things 
essential to a final peace. 

Soon after his accession the imperial army 
marched to relieve Leipsic, which was besieged by 
Bauner. He retired on the approach of a far 
superior force of the enemy, and retreated first to 
Torgau and thence across the Elbe, at Furster- 
burg. His soldiers, unharnessing the reluctant 
horses, dragged the artillery through the river, 
with the water up to their chins. He now found 
himself hemmed in by the enemy; before him 
were the fortresses of Landsburg, Castrin, and the 
Warta, with a hostile army; behind him, across 
the Oder, was the imperial General Bucheim; 
and on his right hand Poland, where, notwith- 
standing the late truce, he could scarcely hope to 
find a safe retreat. In this emergency he em- 
ployed a stratagem to get rid of his pursuers. 
He pretended to direct his retreat towards Po- 
land, by sending on his baggage and an escort of 
his wife and the ladies of other officers. Bucheim 
immediately started his army off in that direction 



192 The Thirty Years' War. 

to get ahead of him; when Bauner, waiting only 
for the night, recrossed the Oder and escaped, 
finally, into Pomerania. 

In 1638 Bauner was re-enforced by fourteen 
thousand men from Sweden and elsewhere, and 
directed his march toward Bohemia. On his way 
he defeated a body of imperial troops under Gen- 
eral Salis, routed a Saxon army, and took Pirna. 
Entering Bohemia he crossed the Elbe, threatened 
Prague, captured Brandeis, then Leutmeritz, and 
defeated General Hofkirchin in a pitched battle. 
He ravaged the country and burnt to the ground 
more than a thousand hamlets and villages and 
castles. Thence he passed into Silesia. 

The emperor was roused to meet the emer- 
gency; a large army under his brother, the Arch- 
duke Leopold, gathered from various quarters, was 
sent to resist the onward course of the Swedes. 

Bauner was now forced to retreat across the 
hills of Meissen into Saxony. He made a stand 
at Plauen, but was defeated and driven into 
Thuringia. At Erfurt, being joined by the Duke 
of Lunenburg, who had renounced the treaty 



The Thirty Years' War. 193 

of Prague, and was ready to fight with the 
Swedes again, and by the Duke of Longueville 
with the French troops lately under Duke Ber- 
nard, he offered battle to the imperialists under 
Piccolomini, intrenched in a strong position near 
Saalfeld. It was declined, and at length both 
armies went into winter-quarters. 

The emperor was holding a Diet at Ratisbon, 
in Bavaria, and Bauner resolved to retrieve his 
wasted laurels by a bold stroke. It was the depth 
of Winter, and the roads and rivers were frozen. 
Taking advantage of this, of a sudden he appears 
with his combined army of Swedes and French- 
men on the banks of the Danube, ready to cross 
the river and besiege the town. Great was the 
surprise and alarm in the Diet, but the emperor re- 
fused to fly; and a thaw, which made it impracti- 
cable for Bauner to lead his army across the river, 
saved him from being besieged, and perhaps cap- 
tured in the city. Bauner fired five hundred 
cannon shots into the city, and then turned away 
to invade Bohemia again. The French General 
Guebriant, however, refused to go further from 



194 The Thirty Years' War. 

France, and withdrew. The advancing troops of 
the enemy were now more than a match for the 
Swedes; and Bauner, with great haste and with 
much difficulty, effected his escape to Saxony. 
At Zwickau he was joined again by Guebriant, 
and together they marched to Halberstadt. 

Here, in May, 1641, the great general, over- 
come by chagrin and by his excessive indulgence 
at the table, fell sick and died. 

After him appeared another, and in some 
respects greater, general to take command of the 
allied armies — Bernard Torstenson> — who had 
learned the art of war under Gustavus in Poland. 
"Though a martyr to the gout," says Schiller, 
"and confined to a litter, he surpassed all his 
opponents in activity; and his enterprises had 
wings, while his body was held by the most 
frightful fetters. Under him the science of war 
was changed, and new maxims adopted, which 
necessity dictated and the issue justified." He 
was born at Torstema, in Sweden, 1603, and was 
now but thirty-eight years of age. He was in the 
great but unsuccessful onslaught made by Gusta- 



The Thirty Years' War. 195 

vus on the intrenched camp of Wallenstein at 
Nuremberg, and had the misfortune to be made 
prisoner. He was exchanged, and returned to 
Sweden, whence he was sent with re-enforcements 
of men and money to take the place of Bauner. 
He determined upon the plan of quitting the re- 
gions exhausted by the war, and of penetrating 
into Austria, on whose fertile fields he could sub- 
sist his army and retaliate the miseries inflicted 
by the imperial armies upon unhappy Germany. 

In the year 1642 he marched through Bran- 
denburg into Silesia ; and captured Glogan and 
Schweidnitz, defeating and killing in battle the 
Duke of Lauenburg, and taking nearly all the 
towns on this side of the Oder. He then pene- 
trated Moravia, took Olmutz, and approached 
Vienna. He was met here by a superior force 
under Archduke Leopold and Piccolomini, and 
driven out of both Moravia and Silesia. 

Wrangel now joined him, and together they 
drove the enemy before them, overrun Lauten, 
took Zittau, and finally crossed the Elbe at Tor- 
gau and threatened Leipsic with siege. The 



196 The Thirty Years' War. 

Archduke Leopold and Piccolomini hurried to 
the relief of the city, and a great battle took 
place on the very scene which was made immor- 
tal by the victory of Gustavus over Tilly. The 
enemy were met by the divisions of Stalhautsch 
and Wallenberg, and their left wing was broken 
in by the irresistible onset of the Swedes, and 
with the cavalry covering it was dispersed. The 
enemy in a similar manner was about to break 
the left wing of the Swedish army, when the vic- 
torious right wing came to their aid. The impe- 
rialists, surrounded, still fought until their ammu- 
nition was exhausted, and they were obliged to 
retreat, leaving five thousand men dead on the 
field, and as many more prisoners in the hands 
of the Swedes, with all their artillery, baggage, 
and the plate of the archduke. 

The archduke, who fought from first to last 
with the greatest bravery, was so incensed with 
the regiment of cavalry which first broke and 
threw the left wing into disorder, that he deprived 
it of its horses and standards, and decimated the 
entire brigade. 



The Thirty Years' War. 197 

Torstenson lost three thousand men and two 
of his generals, Schlangen and Lilienhoeck; and, 
without attempting to pursue the enemy, he laid 
siege to Leipsic. In a few weeks it surrendered, 
and saved itself from plunder by a contribution 
of three hundred thousand rix dollars and a sup- 
ply of clothing for the whole body of the Swedish 

army. 

H 



198 The Thirty Years' War. 



Cllkptef XV. 



TORSTENSON'S MOVEMENTS — THE ALLIES IN COLOGNE — 
RICHELIEU'S DEATH — MAZARIN SUCCEEDS HIM — THE 
FRENCH UNDER GUEBRIANT CROSS THE RHINE — HE IS 
WOUNDED, AND DIES — HIS ARMY IS SURPRISED AT 
DUTTLINGEN, AND DESTROYED — TORSTENSON MAKES 
WAR WITH DENMARK— THE KING, CHRISTIAN IV, SUES 
FOR PEACE — TORSTENSON AGAIN INVADES BOHEMIA — 
THE BATTLE OF JANKOWITZ — THE DEFEAT OF FERDI- 
NAND III, AND HIS RETREAT TO VIENNA — TORSTENSON 
SWEEPS ON TO VIENNA — RETIRES TO BOHEMIA — HE 
RESIGNS, AND WRANGEL SUCCEEDS HIM. 

npORSTENSON besieged Freiburg for sev- 
-*- eral weeks in the midst of Winter, but 
without success; but he compelled Piccolomini 
to abandon his Winter -quarters and come to its 
relief, at great sacrifice of the health of his men 
and the loss of three thousand horses. He next 
marched rapidly into Bohemia and Moravia, and 
relieved Olmutz, besieged by the imperialists. 



The Thirty Years' War. 199 

He went on, ravaging the country to the very 
neighborhood of Vienna. 

Meantime the allies of Hesse and Weimar 
gained a decisive victory over the troops of the 
Elector of Cologne, near Kempen, which opened 
the whole electorate to them for Winter -quarters. 
The French General Guebriant had some success 
in conflict with the Bavarian army, but at length 
was compelled by the superior strength of the 
enemy to withdraw to Alsace. 

Cardinal Richelieu died in November, 1642, 
and the death of Louis XIII followed not long 
after. Cardinal Mazarin was made minister by 
Louis XIV, and adopted the principles and plans 
of his predecessor and friend. He sent a large 
body of troops to re-enforce Guebriant, who then 
crossed the Rhine and captured Rothwell; but 
his life was terminated here by a wound in his 
arm, which, through unskillful treatment, proved 
mortal. 

The army, having taken permanent quarters 
in Duttlingen, was surprised on the 24th of No- 
vember, 1643, by Hatzfeldt and the Duke of 



200 The Thirty Years' War. 

Lorraine. A heavy snow-storm concealed their 
approach, and they speedily captured the artillery 
outside of the village, routed the cavalry, and 
precipitated themselves upon the infantry with 
overwhelming force. Two thousand were killed 
and seven thousand were taken prisoners. 

We left Torstenson in the vicinity of Vienna. 
We next find him passing rapidly through Mo- 
ravia, in Silesia. Thence he proceeds to the Elbe 
and crosses at Torgau, and moves down as far 
as Havelburg. There he surprised his troops by 
informing them that his object was to invade Den- 
mark, in order to punish Christian IV for the 
indirect aid he had given to the enemies of Swe- 
den by the embarrassments he had imposed in 
the navigation of the sound. He expected to find 
supplies for his army in a country not exhausted 
by the war as was Germany. The appearance 
of his troops in Holstein was the declaration of 
war. The whole duchy was soon in his posses- 
sion. A naval battle took place at Fermern, and 
the Danes were defeated, while the king, who was 
in the fight, lost his eye by a splinter. 



The Thirty Years' War. 201 

The emperor dispatched Gallas with an army 
to the aid of his ally. He was met by Torstenson 
and driven as far as Bamberg. Torstenson then 
crossed the Saal, and by a flank movement cut 
off the communication of the imperialists with 
Saxony and Bavaria. They retreated to Magde- 
burg, where they were almost entirely cut to 
pieces by the victorious Swedes. This brought 
the King of Denmark to sue for peace. Oxen- 
stiern conducted the negotiations, and was created 
Count by the queen-regent on his return. 

Torstenson again swept into Bohemia at the 
head of sixteen thousand troops, and sought to 
carry the war a second time into Austria. Ferdi- 
nand III hastens to Prague, and collects the 
whole of the Bavarian and Austrian forces around 
him. A battle took place at Jankowitz on the 
24th of February, 1645. The Virgin Mary had 
appeared to the emperor in a dream, and assured 
him of victory. His superior cavalry was a better 
security for success. His General Goetz, in com- 
mand of a division of the army, got entangled 
among the marshes, and at the outset his troops 



202 The Thirty Years' War. 

were defeated and routed. The rest of the army, 
on the high grounds, were assaulted by the resist- 
less legions of Torstenson and, after eight hours 
of fighting, were swept away. Hadsfeldt, their 
commander, was taken prisoner, together with 
three thousand of his men, while two thousand 
were left dead on the heights and in the low 
grounds. The emperor fled to Vienna to get 
ready for its defense. He was followed by the 
victorious Swedes, who swept through Moravia, 
took the fortresses along the Danube and the 
intrenchments at Wolfs Bridge, near Vienna, and 
encamped in sight of Vienna. 

The Elector of Saxony now sued for peace to 
save his territory from being invaded by the 
Swedes, and the troops of Ragotsky, the suc- 
cessor of Bethlen Gabor, who had been invited 
by the Swedish general to make a common cause 
with him against a common foe. The invasion 
of the Austrian territories by the Transylvanian 
barbarians only destroyed the means of support 
of the Swedish army, and Ferdinand relieved 
himself of them by paying them their demands. 



The Thirty Years' War. 203 

Torstenson next laid siege to Brunn, and ex : 
erted bis utmost to capture it; but after spending 
four months in vain, he raised the siege and 
marched on to Bohemia. He was followed by 
the Archduke Leopold, and the conflict went on 
with victory changing from side to side. His dis- 
order, the gout, here increased so upon him, that 
he was compelled to relinquish his command 
and return to Sweden. His great services were 
acknowledged by the government, and he was 
created Count. Gustavus Wrangel was appointed 
to succeed him as generalissimo, and proved 
himself worthy of the high position. 



204 The Thirty Years' War. 



C^kptef XVI. 



THE PART OF FRANCE IN THE CLOSE OF THE WAR — DE- 
FENSE OF ROCROY — CONFICT WITH THE BAVARIANS — 
WRANGEL UNITES WITH TURENNE — THEY CROSS THE 
DANUBE — RAVAGE BAVARIA — MAXIMILIAN MAKES A 
TRUCE — BREAKS IT — WRANGEL AGAIN UNITES WITH 
TURENNE — THE FINAL CAMPAIGN — THE PEACE OF 
WESTPHALIA — ITS RESULTS. 

A GLANCE at the relation of France to the 
*■ *■ war may now be taken. Under Cardinal 
Mazarin's ministry the war with Spain went on 
vigorously. In the Spring of 1643 a Spanish 
army from the Netherlands laid siege to Rocroy, 
a town in France, just across the border. The 
Duke of Enghien, afterwards Prince of Conde, 
a young and valiant nobleman, whose delight was 
war, commanded the French troops. The Span- 
iards took up so strong a position that it seemed 
madness to all but the enthusiastic and impetuous 
young general to attack them. A breach was first 



The Thirty Years' War. 205 

made by his artillery in the solid squares of the 
Spaniards. Then his squadrons were hurled upon 
their broken ranks and threw them into confusion. 
A hand to hand fight ensued, until, after hours 
of the bloodiest conflict in modern warfare, the 
Spaniards gave way. Their leader, the old Count 
of Fuentes, directed the battle seated in an arm- 
chair, in one of the squares; and he met death, 
where the soldier chooses to die, in the thickest 
of the fight. Thionville was next conquered and 
annexed to French territory. 

In 1643, tne French army, under Turenne, 
was less successful in its conflict with the Bavarian 
army, led by Werth and Mercy. And, in 1644, 
Turenne was compelled to witness the loss of 
Freiburg; but being largely re-enforced by Eng- 
hien, who took the command, a battle was fought 
for three successive days, and the Bavarians 
were beaten. The next year another battle was 
fought at Nordlingen, where the death of Mercy, 
after long fighting, gave the victory to the French. 
They were, however, so depleted by this battle 
and by the departure of the Hessian auxiliaries, 



206 The Thirty Years' War. 

that Turenne was obliged to retire across the 
Rhine at the approach of the Bavarians, re-en- 
forced by Archduke Leopold. 

The Swedes were now left, under their new 
generalissimo to take the whole brunt of the war. 
The whole force amounted to twenty-three thou- 
sand, horse and foot, including the flying corps 
of Koenigsmark, which was approaching the 
camp of Wrangel. The Bavarians and Austrians 
numbered twenty-four thousand. To avoid them, 
and make communication with Koenigsmark and 
Turenne, Wrangel hastened through Upper Sax- 
ony, took Hoeste and Paderborn, and marched 
into Hesse, where he was joined by Koenigsmark 
and afterward by Turenne at Giessen. 

He now determined to follow the course of 
the Danube, and to pass through Bavaria into 
Austria. He met and defeated a Bavarian corps 
near Donau worth, and then crossed the Danube 
and the Lech. He attempted the siege of Augs- 
burg, but was encountered by the imperialists and 
repulsed. He retreated to Lauringen, and when 
the Bavarians, to draw him away from their terri- 



The Thirty Years' War. 207 

tory, departed towards Suabia, he recrossed the 
Lech, and setting a powerful guard there against 
the passage of the enemy, he swept over the 
country, inflicting upon it all the miseries of war, 
only aggravated by the pursuit of the imperialists, 
who had crossed the Lech at Thierhaupten. 

The fortitude of the Elector Maximilian now 
gave way. He had suffered enough; and being 
now persuaded in his own mind that nothing but 
Spanish influence disposed the emperor to con- 
tinue the struggle he proposed a truce. 

The deputies of Sweden, France, Bavaria, and 
Austria held a conference at Ulm. The Austrians 
were so dictatorial that the Swedes were on the 
point of quitting in disgust; but at last, the Aus- 
trians withdrawing, a truce was made between 
the three remaining parties, and Bavaria was 
detached from the alliance of the emperor. 

The emperor had left to him now only twelve 
thousand men, and was so destitute of competent 
generals that he had to place at the head of his 
army Melander, a Hessian and a Calvinist, who 
had deserted from the enemy. 



208 The Thirty Years' War. 

The truce was not of long continuance. John 
de Werth formed a conspiracy with other officers 
of the Bavarian army to carry the whole army 
over to the emperor. It was discovered, and sup- 
pressed by the elector. But not having derived 
from the truce any substantial profit, he now re- 
nounced it, and joined his forces again with 
those of Ferdinand III. 

Wrangel was in Bohemia, and he was now 
obliged to hurry away to make a junction with 
Turenne, before the combined forces of the im- 
perialists should overtake him. Had he been 
resolutely followed by Melander he would have 
been cut off; but Maximilian now felt that it 
would only prolong the war for the emperor to 
gain any decisive victories, and he held back 
his troops. 

Melander took up his quarters in Hesse; and 
Wrangel retreated, and recruited his troops in 
Lunenburg. When the Winter of 1648 opened, 
he marched into Hesse, and drove his antagonist 
to the shelter of the Danube. 

Turenne, after vexatious and disgraceful de- 



The Thirty Years' War. 209 

lays, through the policy of the government, at 
last joined his forces with the Swedes, and to- 
gether they commenced the final campaign of this 
long and terrible war. They went in pursuit of 
Melander, drove him along the Danube, threw 
supplies into Agra, and, in a pitched battle at 
Zusmarshauzen, defeated the united army of Ba- 
varians and Austrians. In the battle Melander 
received a mortal wound. 

Gronsfeld, who now commanded the army of 
the enemy, crossed the Lech to guard Bavaria; 
but the allied army crossed this river at the same 
spot where Gustavus had crossed it, and pushed 
into the interior of the country. They next 
crossed the Iser, and were arrested in their 
march to Austria only by the swollen state of the 
River Inn. 

The last great victory of the war was the sur- 
prise of the new port of Prague by the flying 
corps of Koenigsmark. The old town, on the 
other side of the Moldau, resisted effectually the 
attacks of the Swedes. The new King of Sweden, 
Charles Gustavus, the successor of Christina, was 



210 The Thirty Years' War. 

present at this siege, with the whole Swedish 
army in Bohemia and Silesia. They retired to 
Winter -quarters, where the news of peace made 
all glad. The work of Sweden was done. 

What is called the Peace of Westphalia was 
signed at Minister, October 24, 1648. 

By the treaty, whatever ecclesiastical benefices 
were possessed by the Catholics or Protestants in 
1624 were to remain to them respectively. The 
Imperial Court was to be constituted of an equal 
number of Catholics and Protestants. The Cal- 
vinists and Lutherans were put on an equality 
politically. The Upper Palatinate was united to 
Bavaria. The Lower Palatinate, with an eighth 
electorate, was assigned to the son of the Elec- 
tor Frederic. Western Pomerania and the mouths 
of the great northern rivers were assigned to 
Sweden, together with the Bishoprics of Bremen 
and Verdun. To Brandenburg the Bishoprics of 
Halberstadt, Camin, Minden, and part of Mag- 
deburg were given. To Saxony, the other part 
of Magdeburg and Lusatia. 

France retained Alsace, Strasburg, as a free 



The Thirty Years' War. 21 1 

city, Philippsburg, and the Bishoprics of Metz, 
Toul, and Verdun. 

The question of toleration was referred to the 
German princes, each to manage for his own do- 
minion. But, with rare exceptions, toleration in 
fact has been the custom from that day to the 
present. 

As regards the empire, it nominally remained, 
and the Diet met to confer on the general wel- 
fare, but without power to enforce its decisions. 

The great gain of the war was the security 
of Protestantism. To God be all the glory! 
Amen. 



THE END. 



^ ^ S 



